


Stow-away

by Yarnforbrains



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alpha Din Djarin, Bad Decisions, Cuddling & Snuggling, Daddy Issues, Daddy Kink, Domestic Fluff, Dry Humping, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Masturbation, Mutual Pining, Naked Female Clothed Male, Porn With Plot, Praise Kink, Protective Din Djarin, Slow Burn, Soft Din Djarin, big spoon little spoon, good boys love bad girls, inexperienced Mando, lily is 21, lily is not a child, surprise stowaway!, very slow burn, yea its awkward but just roll with it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:08:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28643463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yarnforbrains/pseuds/Yarnforbrains
Summary: Realistically, it was a terrible trade. The Dark Saber for a salvaged ship? A ship that came with a bonus Foundling. Really, what could possibly go wrong?** Takes place a wee bit after the end of Season 2 where ____ and ______ happen.***Spoilers, sweetie,
Relationships: Din Djarin/Original Female Character(s), Original Mandalorian Characters/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 68
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, thanks so much for coming to read this. I really hope you like it!

“Well, this is it,” Bo Katan put her fists on her hips and stood legs shoulder width apart, confident and in control as she surveyed the empty cargo hold. She didn’t bother checking Mando’s reaction to the ship; she knew he would take it. It would work for now. Just a loan - he had been very clear on that - even when Bo had tried to convince him it was payment for his help with the effort to reclaim Mandalore. He was being as stubborn about the ship as she was about the Dark Saber. Neither would take it from the other outright, so they doubled down on their pride and refused the other’s gift. A tentative truce between them was forming as they bent their own moral codes just enough to get what they wanted. 

“It seems a fair trade,” he answered, holding the sword out to Bo. His helmeted head rose in expectation when she didn’t immediately take it from him, and he lifted the sword again towards her. In fact, it wasn’t a fair trade at all, but it would serve its purpose of distancing him from the lore of the weapon and his people’s belief that the holder of the sword was the true leader of Mandalore. He had absolutely zero desire to rule over anyone. Most days he didn’t even like people. There was a reason he froze his quarry in carbonite; he just liked the silence.

“There’s a…” she interrupted his thoughts but then paused a moment, searching for the right words. “.. _.particular condition  _ the ship comes with.” 

Mando dropped his arm, lowering the weapon and followed Bo as she moved through the cargo hold towards the engine room. They walked single file, neither of them saying more. Whatever the catch was, Mando knew he’d be finding out soon enough, and he had a feeling it would be a headache - not an insurmountable one, but definitely one that would lay waste to his plans and demand they be rearranged. He clenched his jaw in irritation under his helmet and rolled his shoulders back before rocking his neck to the side and cracking it, the little pops filling in the lulls of sound between their boots as they walked down the corridor. 

Bo opened the door to the engine room, and motioned for him to go in first. Ducking his head to enter, he slid past, their armor scraping against each other in the narrow doorway. The room was small and cramped, dimly lit and humid. The iron grate walkway circled around the engine core, enough room for maybe two more people to join them for a secret liaison to pass information. The room was dank and warm, glowing in the low lights that were completely impractical for any repair work. Mando made a mental note to replace them with something more functional later.

“So, it’s seen better days.” Bo tried to keep her voice light as Mando walked around the engine room, boots heavy on the grate. He looked it over, sliding a hand along the casing and opening an access panel to peer inside. It seemed sturdy enough. Repairs were clearly evident, but that was the norm for most ships this size around here with all of the fighting. As long as the ship was hobbled together enough to get him to where he needed to go and do what he needed to do, it was fine. The Razor Crest hadn’t been pretty, but it had been loyal and dependable - even when it shouldn’t have been. Mando brushed past the tinge of pain in his chest as he remembered losing it, and hoped that this ship would be as loyal and forgiving as the Crest had been before it had been blown to smithereens in front of him. He stood there for a moment, hand on the engine casing, inspecting it, mentally cataloging a to-do list when Bo cleared her throat and pulled him away. 

“Come on,” she crossed her hands over her chest and nodded to the other side of the small room. It looked like a dead end, but the walkway extended forward just enough for someone to bend down and crouch under the pipes to pass through. Bo once again extended her hand out to Mando, motioning he should go first, but he refused, inclining his head to tell her that it was her turn. She sighed and raised her eyebrows as if to say “let’s get this over with” and crouched down and disappeared through the strange entryway. Mando stood, watching and waiting for whatever was going to happen to happen, but nothing did until Bo’s gloved hand shot out and snapped her fingers at him, motioning him to join her through the unusual doorway. 

Sighing, Mando rolled his shoulders and stretched his back before lowering to his hands and knees and crawling underneath the engine workings. It was a short crawl, just a few meters through the access shaft. Ahead of him, Bo’s boots were visible. Where she was, there was enough room to stand, and Mando did as soon as he gracelessly tumbled out of the shaft. 

Dusting his hands and knees off, Mando noticed Bo’s drawn face first. She was nervous, but hid it with a quick smile. Again, she took her normal stance, hands across the chest, feet shoulder width apart. She motioned her head towards the wall in front of her. Her mouth twitched as she got ready to speak, but changed her mind. 

“Don’t tell me there’s another secret passageway to crawl through,” his voice crackled through the modulator in his helmet, filling the small space, but over the tinny echo, a tiny gasp was audible. Hearing it, Mando’s head snapped to the darkness of the small space. 

“Like I said,  _ a small pre-existing condition,”  _ Bo offered up carefully, trying to hold the teasing tone out of her voice. She held her finger and her thumb just barely apart and squinted at him through them as if to show how small of a condition it really was.

“I am done taking on strays. Grogu was enough. I’ll find another ship,” he turned on his heel to leave, but Bo’s hand on his armor stopped him. 

“Please, just….take care of her,” she asked gently. “When we found the ship, it was adrift in space. From what we could tell from the bodies, it looks like her family was killed by pirates. She was the only thing we found on the life scans.”

“It’s a her? No, absolutely not.” he interrupted, grunting as he squatted down to re-enter the tunnel. The sound of his knees popping as he dropped filled the air. 

“Din Djarin,” now Bo was loud, speaking as though she wielded absolute power. “The holder of Dark Saber, the leader of Mandalore - is  _ not _ walking away from a foundling and betraying the honor of his people, is he?”

A breathy, frustrated growl rolled off of Mando as he hung his head for a moment before standing back up. Chin lifted, he took the few steps back to the redhead in front of him. Appeased, she smiled widely, knowing she’d won, and moved behind him to place her hands on his shoulders and point him back into the direction of the figure hiding in the darkness. 

“Our deal stands. You take this ship - and its crew -” Bo paused as Mando snorted incredulously, “and you go do your bounties until you have enough to buy your own. Return it when you are ready to rule.”

“-- and in the meantime, you keep the sword safe, and I don’t get involved. Yeah, fine. Why can’t you just take it?” Mando didn’t bother to look at her, instead peering into the darkness at the little blip of heat signature in his visor. 

“You know the rules, brother. This is the way.” With a hearty pat on the shoulder, Bo Katan took the Dark Saber from his side and left, crawling out the same way she came. Mando stood, unmoving, waiting for the retreating footsteps to fade away, continuing to stare straight ahead at the wall of pipes and conduits. Once silence signaled her departure, Mando took a tentative step forward.

“Uh, hey there, bud. Why don’t you come on out? I’m not gonna hurt you.” Kneeling down again, Mando held his hands up, palms out, trying to convince the shadow he was harmless. 

Even in the poor lighting and through his helm, he felt the angry stare burning through him. 

“Ok, fair enough. I’m just gonna sit down, and we can talk.” Not so gracefully, Mando fell back onto his bottom, rocking backwards a bit before settling down, and crossing his legs, hands still outstretched. He groaned, arching his back, trying to get comfortable on the metal ground. 

“I’m going to put my hands down now,” he started narrating his actions as he moved. “And I’m going to put them on my knees. Ok,” he groaned again, “I’m gonna stretch these legs out. I’m too old for this.” The last part was said more to himself than his companion. Silence met him, and they sat in it together calmly enough, watching each other. 

“We got time, bud, but not that much.” He leaned back, arms behind him, still looking into the darkness. In front of him, visible thanks only to the tech in his visor, he saw a small figure with long hair, huddled along the back wall. 

“Are you a droid?” the quiet voice that came from the shadows was trying to sound strong, but shook as it hissed a whisper. 

“No; I’m a Mandalorian,” he paused for a response but continued when none came, “The armor is part of it.”

“How do I know you’re not a droid?” the voice moved closer, cautious and tentative in its movement, still quiet in size. 

Mando responded by tugging off a glove and holding his bare hand in the air, turning it over and over as proof.

“See?” he asked, as if it explained everything. 

“Take off the helmet,” called back to him from the edge of the shadows. 

“It stays on.” 

Silence hung between them heavily in the air. His answer had come quickly and forcefully, delivered with more vehemence than intended or deserved by his shadow friend, and she scuttled back to her original spot against the far wall. 

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I’m not mad at you. You can come out. It’s safe. Just you and me, bud,” rolling onto his knees, hands in front of him in the universal sign of surrender, he spoke quietly and confidently as if he was trying to tame a wild animal. 

“Come on. That’s it.” Holding his breath while the figure crawled closer, he paid careful attention to the readings displayed before him, not trusting the stranger or giving it the benefit of the doubt. Small or not, Grogu had shown him not to misjudge something by its size. Still, Mando lowered his hand as if he were offering it to a feral dog to sniff. 

Instead of a snout, a delicate hand with long, thin fingers, dirty with grease and dried blood reached forward out of the dark and hovered above his outstretched hands. Mando stared at the hand as it moved, seemingly captivated as the fingers danced gracefully, twitching through the air before fingertips landed lightly, like butterfly legs on a flower petal. The contact was brief and wistful and made the hairs on the back of his head stand up. He swallowed tightly as the stranger inhaled sharply. He held his tongue as she moved - he could see now it was a she. 

Placing her hand into his, she pulled herself out of the shadows and kneeled in front him, sitting back on her heels. She pushed a few stray strands of hair out of her face that had fallen from the messy pile of hair on top of her head. Her eyes were watching his through the narrow slit in his helmet, and her ability to find eye contact through the beskar helm was unnerving, but she gave in first and dropped her eyes to where their hands sat, still connected. 

She blinked slowly, dark lashes fanning against her cheek, fluttering before they opened again. She looked at his face through the layers of metal, somehow knowing intrinsically where to focus. Hand still in his, she rose on her knees and walked forward on them until the gap between them had been closed, and they knelt a hand’s width apart. Their hands slid from each other as they fell to their sides, fingers bumping loosely into each other, unwilling to break the circuit. 

“Where is the other one,” she spoke, but again it was a whisper, ”the one who takes her helmet off?” 

Mando watched as she lifted her hand again and moved to place it on the curved plane of his helmet as if she were holding his cheek. Moving slowly, he took her hand off his face, and lowered it back down to their sides, fingers skating against each other once more. 

“She’s gone.”

“Din Djarin, the holder of Dark Saber, the leader of Mandalore - you are in my way.” She spoke softly this time, but firmly, as her voice finally rose over a whisper. 

“Don’t call me those things,” he tried and failed to keep the snap out of his voice, but moved backwards regardless. 

“Which one? Din Djarin? Holder of the Dark Saber? Leader of Mandalore? Are they not true? Is she a liar?” The girl moved into the open, standing up, towering over Mando still on his knees. She regarded him for a moment, tilting her head to the side, hair flopping over with the movement. She blinked her big eyes at him vacantly, then held her hand out for him. He took it, grasping her forearm and allowing her to help him up. 

“Mando is fine,” they dusted their hands off in awkward unison. Again, he watched her. She was standing there in her dirty shirt and pants, in need of a shower and a hair brush. He watched as her face broke into a wide grin, and she swept down to pick something off the floor. 

His glove. He watched still as she turned it over in her hands, running her index finger down the length of each of the yellow fingers and across the seam along the knuckles where the color changed to blue. Then she traced the thumb joint and the stitch around the cuff. 

“Ok, Mando, why are you on Dad’s ship? Well, I guess since everyone is dead, it’s my ship now.” She continued to inspect her prize then looked up at him, eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer as she slipped the glove onto her hand. It engulfed her, fabric coming halfway down over her forearm. She wiggled her fingers in the glove then brought it to her nose and sniffed it as if it were the most natural thing in the world for one to do. Without second glance or returning the glove, she moved past him, sliding her way into the narrow exit that would lead them out of the hidden room. With no other options, he followed, dropping to his knees and scurrying after her through the crawlspace. He followed her past the engine room and through the metal doorway and down the hallway, nearly slamming into her back and knocking her over when she stopped abruptly when she crossed the threshold into the cargo bay. 

“Where is it?” she asked quietly, small hands fisting beside her. She spun on her heels to face him. “Where is it?”

There was no answer. He knew what she was asking. She had to have known and expected it. She had been there, hiding in the dark, on her own ship while it had been re-outfitted and cleaned, purged of any traces of previous occupants. 

Her mouth quivered at his silence for a moment before she screwed up her lips and worried them left and right, chewing on the inside of her lip while her eyes glazed over with wetness.They stood there another moment in silence, her fidgeting her fingers, toying with the ends of the stolen glove, and him, fisting and unfisting his naked hand, waiting patiently for the right time to take it back, and hoping he could do it without tears.

“Good night,” she was abrupt and incorrect; it was daytime. Regardless, she spun on her heels and broke out in a sprint towards the stairs up to the second level of the ship, using the railings to swing herself up the stairs quickly with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times before. Mando followed, taking the steps one at a time as people normally do, and lazily chased her towards the front of the ship where the sleeping quarters and cockpit were. 

“Why did she take it all? It wasn’t hers to take!” ahead of him, the girl rounded a corner, and he could hear her opening doors and rustling through things. As he made his way to her, she went silent. Her back was to him, standing in silhouette in an open doorway, too-big glove still dwarfing her hand as it rested on the door frame. Quietly, he walked up behind her, peering over her head into the room. It wasn’t anything special. It just looked like a typical girl’s room. The grey metal walls had been adorned with posters; the two beds set against the walls were covered with matching pastel purple comforters. On each bed was a giant, fluffy stuffed animal.

“Kid..” the realization struck him before she did. 

“Get out!” She spun in front of him and shoved him before screaming at him again. “Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!” She kept screaming and pushing until she deemed him far enough away, and closed the door in his face. He didn’t bother trying to open it. He could hear her destructive rage clearly from where he stood. She kept screaming at him to get out, even though he already had, her mind stuck on a loop as she destroyed the room Bo had apparently kept for her. 

Sighing, Mando looked around. There was no sign of her family coming before him on this ship; it had been cleansed of their presence, ready for him and taken by the Mandalorian cause. The only proof they had existed - the only impact they left on the universe was the room that had been a compassionate gift gone wrong. It didn’t take long for the screams to transform into wailing sobs that echoed through every part of the ship. They were deep, and loud, and agonizing, and they reverberated off the metal walls as if they were searching for the ghosts of the lost family. Through his helmet, he could see her heat signature sitting on the floor, back against one of the beds, feet braced against the other. She was sobbing into one of the stuffed animals, but she was otherwise okay. Okay enough.

Mando shook his head and made his way to the cockpit and took a look around, taking time to familiarize himself with the ship and its controls. He briefly - very briefly - considered asking the girl to copilot, but immediately shoved the idea out of his head. It was replaced by the chirping of an incoming transmission. He knew it was Bo before she spoke. 

“Well?” she asked, amusement lilting her voice. Mando could picture her in her home here on Mandalore, leaning back in her chair, red bob swinging as she spoke.

“She burst into tears and stole my glove and then destroyed the bedroom.” Silence met him. 

“I guess I thought she’d like it.” Silence settled between them, and Mando knew Bo was thinking of Satine, her own murdered sister. “We didn’t kill them, Mando. We found the ship adrift and picked up her life sign. I went to that engine room every day to try to get her to come out,” her voice trailed off again. 

“What do you want me to do with her?” He sighed again, resuming his preflight checklist and starting the ship up. 

“Do what you do, Mando, Patron Saint of Foundlings.” She laughed lightly. “I just had a feeling.” She was serious, the laughter and teasing gone from her voice. “I just had a feeling you’d handle it,” she repeated. 

Mando grunted in response, completing his sequence. He looked over his shoulder and considered locking the cockpit door, but decided against it. He shook his head to clear it of the sounds of crying pinging around in his mind, and got ready to take off. 

“We are going to Nevarro,” he declared, deciding on the course as soon as he thought of it. 

“Nevarro?” she repeated back, unsure. 

“Yeah, I have some friends there. See you soon.”

She said her goodbyes and they disconnected. Mando plotted the course as he piloted the ship out of docking and into the atmosphere, flying above the planet and shooting into space. Shaking his head again, he sighed into the empty cockpit as he made the jump into hyperdrive.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we see some old friends

A very unamused Cara Dune stood waiting at the bottom of the ship ramp, shaking her head, arms across her chest, standing with her hip popped and a whole lot of attitude. She managed to hold the face for a moment before a smile tugged at a corner of her lips and she offered her hand. Sauntering down to meet her, Mando grasped her forearm in his and held it as he said hello.

“Well this is new,” she commented, looking up at the ship and walking past him onto the ramp. She turned her head to him and silently asked his permission to enter and take a look around. “How did you manage this?” Her voice was coming from the cargo hold now, so Mando turned around and followed her back onto the ship. 

“Bo Katan,” he answered simply, watching her eyes widen and light up at the sound of her name. 

“Tell her I said, ‘hey’.” Cara nodded her head towards him and smiled flirtatiously at the mention of her crush, all but winking at him while she looked around the ship.

“You can tell her yourself. You have a radio,” Mando ignored the request, refusing to be the go-between between his friends. 

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I’m working on my patience.” 

Mando huffed a stifled laugh, knowing full well that patience was neither Cara’s or Bo’s strong suit, and that they had little more intention towards each other outside of flirting. Choosing not to engage or humor her delusions of puppy love, he raised his arm to the stairs as an invitation to move the tour upstairs and motioned for Cara to head up first. As they walked through the ship, Cara made a point to open every door and compartment, inspecting and judging Mando’s housekeeping skills as she went. She clicked her tongue at him and chastised him the way a big sister would at his unmade bed. No matter how often she teased him, Mando never responded and wasn’t bothered - a further sign of their camaraderie.

When they came to the girl’s bedroom, Mando reached out to Cara and stopped her before she tried the closed door. Confused, she stopped and took a step back; the pair stood shoulder paldrons touching in front of the door. She waited for him to offer an explanation, but there wasn’t one coming freely, so she asked for one instead. 

“You’re about to ask me for help, aren’t you?” she asked, head cocked towards his, shooting him a knowing look out of the corner of her eye. 

“Yup,” was the simple, modulated answer. 

“You know you already owe Karga and I?” 

“Mhm.” No words needed. 

From behind the door, a sneeze sounded. This time Cara fully turned to face him, mouth open, threatening to laugh. 

“You found another one?” she asked incredulously. “No way, Mando. Is this what you do now?” She frowned at his non-response. “I can feel you shooting me a dirty look from here. Don’t do that. Does this one at least speak Basic?” 

“Yeah, she speaks Basic.” He nervously rubbed the back of his helmet with his gloved hand - _old_ _gloves_. He’d had to dig out a pair of old gloves. He had yet to retrieve the missing one from the girl, and he was afraid to try in case she started crying again. Or worse: ran back to that little squatter’s nest she’d made in the walls of the engine room.

“She?” Cara lifted her brows nearly into her hairline. 

“They found the ship adrift. Best guess is pirates. Everyone was dead. They found her hiding in the engine room, surrounded by dead pirates. Weequays. Couldn’t get her to come out for days. She came with the ship,” he almost snorted the last part. 

“What does that -” Cara’s voice cut out quickly as she realized what Mando was getting ready to ask. “No. Absolutely not.” Her refusal was quick and adamant. She sliced her hands through the air in an X and rocked back a step. 

“She’s just a kid, Cara. A good kid.” He held his hand out pleadingly, waiting for her to change her mind. 

He hadn’t seen her again that first day; she’d stayed locked in her room the rest of the day. 

On the second day, Mando heard her come out and take a shower only to retreat back into the safety of her room immediately after she was done. 

On the third day, she had woken him up in the cockpit by shaking his shoulder. Lights were blinking and an alarm was beeping. Air was hissing from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. The girl leaned over the edge of his seat, reaching for a button against the wall, so he pressed it for her. She moved onto others then stood and jerked a lever above his head before spinning and sitting in the copilots chair and repeating a familiar process until the all was quiet. They sat in the silence for several minutes before she shifted in her chair, folding her knee underneath her. Mando turned his head slightly to see her better as she put her hand on the console and used it to swivel herself around to face him in her seat. On that hand was his glove. He looked at it, and she followed his gaze through the helmet and looked at the glove too. Frowning, she pulled her hand into her lap and shoved it under the hem of her loose sweater. She was barefoot and her toes just reached the floor enough to twist the chair left and right as she sat. Her hair was messy and thrown up on top of her head, but it was wet and smelled clean. She must have showered again. Mando noticed the cockpit smelled lightly of flowers and huffed to clear the scent away. It did not work. She sat there, staring at him for a while, just twisting in her chair, both of them silent until she decided she was done and left back to her room.

And now on the fourth day, she opened the bedroom door to face Cara and Mando as they talked about her. Both of their heads turned to look at her at once, and she stood still in front of them, hands folded in front of her, glove still on her hand. As Cara noticed it, she spoke to Mando silently with her eyebrows, asking why she had the glove, and he raised a hand as if to reply back that he didn’t know. 

“That’s not a child, Mando,” was the first thing Cara actually did say.

“I’m not,” the girl answered quickly, as if the childish bedroom behind her did not do her the injustice of giving doubt to that claim. 

“What’s your name, honey?” Cara put her hand out to the girl, moving to the side to let her come out. Cara looked to Mando to answer, unsure if the girl would. 

Mando realized he had never asked, and she had never offered. He shook his head, embarrassed that he didn’t know. Cara turned back to the girl. 

“Lily.”

“Ok, Lily. I’m Cara.” She motioned to herself then to Mando beside her. “This is Mando, and we are here to help.”

“Does she think I’m an idiot?” Lily talked through Cara to Mando. He shrugged. “I’m not an idiot, and I’m not a child. And it’s not a pleasure.” She scowled and walked through them, knocking into Cara’s arm as she did. Above her head, Cara’s eyes widened, and she flattened her mouth in response, surprised but amused at the girl’s ferocity. Again, all Mando could do was raise a hand in a lazy shrug. 

They turned in unison and watched Lily go over to compartment after compartment as she looked for something but didn’t find it. After accepting that whatever she was searching for had been removed during the clean-out, she growled in frustration and kicked at the wall before turning back around and heading back into her bedroom. She swung on the doorframe into the room, hanging off its edge as she bent over to pull something off from underneath the desktop. She came up with a blaster and shoved it into the back of her black leggings and pulled the edge of her chunky sweater over it. She reached farther in and pulled a beaten-up canvas messenger bag off the top of the desk and slung it over her body. 

“Does she know this is a desert planet?” Cara asked out of the corner of her mouth.

Hearing her, Lily stopped abruptly and stood still a moment before ripping the bag off and tossing it back onto the desk and whipping her sweater off to reveal a plain undershirt. She pulled at it and untucked it quickly and used the hem of it to hide the blaster as she had done before with the now discarded sweater. With the same speedy dexterity, she slung the bag back into its place and made to leave again. This time Mando stepped in front of her, blocking her. 

“No,” he said simply, and held his hand out. 

Sighing haughtily, she pulled the weapon out from behind her back and dropped it into his hands. Without looking at it, he held it behind him for Cara to grab. As she did, he brought his hand back up and made a grabbing motion. 

“Glove,” he ordered. 

She didn’t sigh her refusal this time. She stood there, facing off with him, again finding his eyes through the beskar helmet and holding them. Her face was as blank as his helmet was as they stared each other down until she cracked and smiled sneakily, breaking his gaze to look at his outstretched hand. Taking his hand in hers, she lowered it until it was level to her chest. She held it in the palm of her gloved hand and used the other to begin tugging the glove off his other hand. She lowered her eyes and bit her lip as she concentrated on pulling on the fabric at each of the fingertips until it loosened and pulled it off his hand slowly. She drew her fingers down his empty palm and up his fingers then did the same to the upside down top of his hand before dropping it gently. Lily could hear the spit in his mouth as it moved through the back of his mouth and down his throat as he swallowed.

Reaching to his side, she lifted his other hand and held it the same way as she had the other. Lily repeated the process, taking both of his gloves and tucking them between her chin and chest as she released his hand and removed her own glove - his glove. She held it out to him, and when he pulled it from between her fingers, it slid out slowly as she held onto it, adding resistance to the tug. Satisfied and smiling, she slid her hands into the new pair of gloves she’d just acquired. She flexed her hands in them and held them up to inspect them, taking a step back to give herself enough room to do so without running into him. 

“We traded,” she said, holding her hand out to him. Unsure of what else to do, he shook it, and her eyes lit up before she bounded past him, heading off the ship. 

As he'd seen her do before, she swung out on the staircase, using the railing to drop halfway down to the landing before swinging down to the first floor. She was already to the edge of the ship, ready to go down the ramp, holding her hand up to her eyes to shield them from the sun before Cara and Mando followed her down the stairs. As they walked to where she was, Lily turned on her heel, bag swinging wide around her in a circle as she spun. Her focus was on Mando, and she dropped her hands and held them in front of her again, fidgeting them. 

“I don’t know where I am,” she blurted out, worry flushing her face. 

“Nevarro.” His one word answers again. 

“That means nothing to me,” she tossed back quickly. 

“I have friends here. Come on.” Mando patted her shoulder awkwardly and walked around her and headed down onto the planet. 

From there, Lily looked at Cara, face wrinkling in apparent dislike. Smiling tightly with arms crossed, Cara came to her, stopping as she passed and leaning down to speak into her ear. 

“He’s not my type,” she whispered before leaving her to join Mando on the ground. Lily scurried after her, but stopped short of actually stepping off the ship. Instead she skidded to a halt, arms flailing as she struggled to maintain her balance as she rocked on her toes, changing her mind at the last possible second and staying on the ship. 

“Hey,” Cara lightly smacked the side of Mando’s arm, and pointed at Lily hovering at the edge of the walkway, “you gonna get that?” She couldn’t help but laugh, amused at how Mando once again had found himself the caretaker of a foundling; a job he had never signed up for in the first place. He was silent as he trudged back to the ship and the girl. 

“Come on.” Mando motioned for her to follow him and took a step, looking over his shoulder to confirm if she was following him. 

She was not. 

“You didn’t actually expect that to work?” Lily looked at him like he was an idiot and crossed her arms over her chest. The sarcasm lasted only a second; she looked worried again and brought her hands to her mouth and went to chew on her fingernails. Tasting leather, she made a dissatisfied face and folded her arms again. 

“What’s wrong?” There wasn’t any concern or tenderness in his voice. His goal was to get her off the ship, not make her feel better, but he also didn’t want to make whatever this was worse. 

“If I get off this ship, I’m never getting back on it, am I?” She held her hand up to her brow to block out the sun as it reflected off his entire body. 

“Listen, bud -”

“Lily. I’m Lily.” She pointed at her chest as she said her name. “You’re Mando.” she pointed at him. “She’s Cara.” Her arm swung to point to Cara Dune as she stood off the side, perfectly content in watching the girl give him such a hard time. 

“Lily,” he retried, softening his voice. He held his hands up, palms out, regarding her as if she was a wild animal again, like he had done when she was in her safe, little, engine room cubby hole. “Let’s go get something to eat, and we can talk. Ok?” He held his hand out for her to take. She looked at it briefly then back to his face, leaving him standing there awkwardly with his arm outstretched. 

“If I get off this ship, they aren’t coming back.” Her lip quivered but she quickly covered it up with the back of her hand and kicked at the raised, metal edge of the gangway. 

Mando looked over his shoulder at Cara for guidance. She shoo’ed her hands at him, instructing him to go pay attention to the girl and try again. He shrugged, not sure what else to do and waved his hand for Cara to come over and help. They continued their silent conversation with Cara refusing to intervene and Mando turning around to face Lily again. 

“Do you really want me to say it, kid - Lily?”

She took a deep breath and dropped her hands, shrugging her shoulders back and raising her head. “Absolutely not.” With that, she walked forward, plucking Mando’s unsuspecting hand from his side and capturing it in hers, lacing her fingers through his and joining him on the dusty planet. She kept right on walking, pulling a confused and surprised Mando along behind her as they headed towards Cara. 

“Karga is gonna love this.” Cara laughed, shaking her head as they headed towards the magistrate office. 

As they walked, Lily stayed tucked to Mando’s side, claiming his arm and making it unusable as she wrapped herself around him. Mando hobbled along with her attached to him, slowed by her inattention as she looked at the world around her. People in the street nodded to Cara as they passed, but gave a wide berth to the trio, eyeing the armored man and his tag-along curiously. By the time they entered the Magistrate’s Office, Mando was sure that most of the city had become aware of their strange arrival, and he was glad to be able to hide inside with his friends - and the kid. Before the door had even closed, Greef Karga’s booming voice welcomed them, calling to Mando as he came around from behind his desk and giving him a hug - the strangled kind of welcome men do where they slap each other on the back a couple of times then stand apart and shoot the shit for a few minutes while they exchanged pleasantries. But this time, Karga was quick to notice the additional person. Still holding his hand, Lily had moved behind Mando and peeked her head out from the side of his body to look at Karga with her big eyes wide in worry. 

“Well, hello, little one! Mando, who’s this?” the first part directed towards Lily, the second towards his friend. 

“Um,” Mando cleared his throat and tugged his companion out from behind him. “This is Lily.”

Karga looked between them expectantly waiting for a further explanation. As he waited, Lily tried to sneak back behind him again, but Mando stopped her with a stern ‘ _ no’ _ and she froze instantly. Lily glared at him and made a show of dropping his hand and crossing her arms over her chest, but still stood close enough that her shoulder was pressed against his bicep. Across the room, Cara choked back her laughter as she sat in Karga’s seat and put her feet up on the edge of his desk. 

“You said you’d feed me, and there’s no food here.” Lily was blunt as she reminded him of their deal.

“You know what, Lily?” Karga started, smiling warmly at the girl, “Let’s go get some food and you can tell me all about how you wound up with this metal man, okay?” She looked nervously to Mando for permission, and as he gave it, she stepped forward to Karga, who offered her his arm like a perfect gentleman. Lily took it, and the two headed out the door, leaving the other two to follow. 

“This I gotta see.” Cara jumped up from her seat and headed to the door, holding it open for Mando before they left to catch up with them. He had to hand it to Karga; the old man moved fast and demanded quick service. By the time Mando and Cara entered the cantina, the unlikely pair was already seated at a table, both holding big, frothy tankards of ale. Cara motioned to the bartender to send another over for her as they joined the table. 

“How did she get a beer?” Cara asked, taking a sip of hers as soon as it was placed in front of her. 

“I traded.” Lily dipped her finger into the foam and swirled it around inside the glass. 

“Lily was just telling me in exchange for a drink that you stole her ship, Mando, and I simply could not believe it.” Karga chastised his friend, but his tone belied his unspoken request for an explanation. 

“He didn’t steal it,” Lily quipped, “the lady with red hair did.”

“Bo Katan -” Cara supplied, leaning back in her chair. Karga grunted his understanding. 

“And then she traded him for the sword, but he didn’t want to trade because of me.” She went back to her beer, done with the conversation. 

“Is she even old enough to drink?” Mando asked, stretching his legs out underneath the table. Cara kicked them out of her way as they encroached into her leg space and glared at him over the edge of her glass as she drank heartily from it. 

“I checked. She’s fine.” Karga waived off his concerns. “I’m surprised you know so little about your little Lily, Mando.” 

Mando sighed in the way that every exhausted parent does when they’re ready to bang their head against the wall. 

“If you like her so much, then you keep her.” Mando resisted the urge to fold his arms under his head and take a nap on the table top. This entire interaction was exhausting. The entire situation was exhausting. He was exhausted. And irritated by what both of his friends thought was so funny. Mando was not having fun. 

The crude remark caught Lily’s attention. 

“He can keep  _ you _ , and I will take my ship and leave.”

“And do what, kid? How do you plan on paying for food? Fuel? You have nothing and no one. What’s the plan here? Because it looks like your best bet is to settle here. I’ll buy the ship off you, but you can’t fly off alone into the galaxy. It’s not  _ safe. _ ” Mando pouted in his seat, ready to leave the planet and not return for a very long time. 

“Mando!” Karga’s reprimand was angry and silenced the entire cantina. 

“Not cool, dude,” Cara commented and it seemed everyone who had turned to rubberneck agreed with her. 

The room stared at Mando and Lily, waiting to see what would happen next. Her voice was quiet and small as she spoke, dragging his self worth down lower than her anger could have. “My family was murdered by pirates, and the red haired lady took my ship. That’s why I have no one and nothing.”

Cara’s eyes shot between the two then over to Karga as she watched the smaller girl stand up from the table and stare down one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy without any sign of fear. Mando turned in his seat to face the girl, looking up at her as she hovered above him, a compact package of suppressed rage and unaddressed trauma. He didn’t seem bothered or upset by it, but stared back, curious to how she always found his eyes when she shouldn’t be able to see them through the mirrored visor. 

Karga cleared his throat and tapped the table with a locator beacon, breaking the stare down between the man in the shiny beskar armor and the girl with the messy bun. The sound has its desired effect, and they broke eye contact slowly, both turning to face the older man. Lily took her seat again as he instructed her to, and Mando apologized under his breath before he was ordered to. 

“Mando, you will take the ship -” Greef Karga held up his hand to silence anyone before they interrupted him. “I’m giving you 4 beacons. Come back with them, and you will give Lily here half the bounty as payment for the ship. Lily, you will stay here with me and Cara and be helpful. You will earn your keep and a little pocket change.” He held his hand out for her to shake, expecting her to agree to the deal while not giving Mando a choice in the matter at all. 

Head tilted, Lily looked from Karga’s face to his hand to Mando then back again to the older man. “That is not a good trade. I do not accept. I need more information.” 

Instead of annoyance, Karga broke into a wide smile. “You have good instincts, Lily.” She nodded in agreement. ”You ever hear of the Bounty Hunter’s Guild?” When she shook her head no, he smiled wider. “Well, you’re about to learn a whole lot about it. Come on, Lil, let’s let these slackers rest. We have work to do.” 

With that, Karga tossed the fob to Mando and got up from the table, holding his arm out to his new protege. The two wandered out together, leaving Cara stifling her laughter into her beer and Mando wondering what the hell he’d gotten into.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which plans are changed....again.

It had been a long few weeks. Very long. Mando was tired and sore. The first three fobs that Karga had given him had been relatively easy and cooperative, but the last one had decided the best place to hide was inside the abandoned, over-mined quartz caverns of a small, forgotten planet that now only served as an overpriced fuel stop. The hunt had taken days longer than it was supposed to thanks to an electrical storm that had made it impossible to fly safely, so he’d gone on foot. Not that flying would have helped him when he realized he was going underground into the mines, but it would have been nice to have avoided the fist-sized chunks of hail that had pelted him as he hiked to the cavern entrance. Maybe if the weather hadn’t been so bad, and maybe if he hadn’t been rushing to get away from the lightning and the balls of ice falling on his head, Mando would have been more careful about where he stepped. But he was rushing and hadn’t anticipated the way the ground was shifting under his feet. Maybe if he had been paying more attention, he would have realized the cave-in was happening before it swept away his footing and dropped him unceremoniously on his ass and bruised his tailbone. The fall, paired with the inconsistent ceiling heights in the caverns that made him bend in half to make it through, had left his back aching. Days later, sitting in a fully padded and plush seat in Karga’s office on Nevarro, Mando still felt tightness in his lower back and that was the reason for his bad mood, but Karga looked uncomfortable as well, and that did not bode well for the conversation they were having about Mando’s payment.

The older man looked apprehensive as he laid the credits on the table. The stack was substantially smaller than it should have been. Even figuring half of it going to the girl - to Lily - Mando knew it was short, and the look on Karga’s face confirmed it. Mando sat and waited for an explanation; he left the partial payment sitting between them on the desk. The noises of everyday life on a trade planet spilled in from the open windows that faced the street; the two men were silent. 

“That’s short.” Mando broke the quiet first, ready to leave as soon as possible. “Looks like you took the girl’s share and then some.”

“About Lily…” his friend started. 

“-she’s not my problem,” Mando interrupted him quickly. The look on Karga’s face told him he needed to reconsider.

“She can’t stay here anymore. She’s smart. She’s real smart - much smarter than most people I’ve met in their 20s - especially considering how she grew up. And she’s a fair shot, too.” Karga paused, and Mando could feel a  _ ‘but’  _ coming and supplied it, urging his friend to continue. “Cara and I have worked very hard to change Nevarro. We nearly have our independence. Trade is booming, and so is our community. We have turned over a new leaf, so to speak.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Mando knew full well where this conversation was going, and was not amused. He shifted in his seat, partially to ease his aching back, but also because the idea of being responsible for a foundling again made him squirm. 

“She’s not ready for real life yet. Whatever she saw, she’s not dealing with it. You should know what that does to someone who isn’t a soldier - or a bounty hunter.” The two sat there in silence again for a moment, Mando chewing over what had been said, Karga working up the nerve to say more. 

“I don’t want her.”

“I know you don’t, but she can’t stay here.” More or less declaring the conversation over, Karga bent over to the side and opened a desk drawer. He came back up with a blaster and laid it beside the stack of credits. Karga leaned over again and did the same with a pocket-sized blaster, brass knuckles, a long bowie knife with a Republic insignia on it, and then a switchblade. Mando recognized the blaster as the one he’d taken from Lily the day he'd left her here with his friends, but the others piqued his interest. “These are hers. We know the blaster is from the ship, but she could have picked the others up from anywhere. Maybe she will be more forthcoming with you than she was with us.” 

Karga cleared his throat again and knocked his knuckles on the desktop, signalling the end of that topic of the conversation. He smiled tightly and opened a desk drawer and pulled out a small pile of credits. He placed it on the table next to the weapons and slid it forward to Mando, keeping his fingers on it while he spoke. “This is all she has left after paying her damages and fines. Your fee is untouched, but you may want to start a bail fund for her.” He raised his eyebrows expectantly. His face said it all; Karga expected - demanded - that Mando take care of Lily and keep her out of trouble. Mando signaled his agreement by taking a couple of credits off the pile intended for him and adding it to the smaller one intended for his ward. Finishing their deal, Karga added new tracking fobs to the pile, giving Mando his next jobs.

Mando regarded the array in front of him for a moment before speaking. “Where is she?”

“She’s in the back.”  _ The back _ was where the cells were, and that was not the answer that he had been expecting. Mando waited for an explanation, and it took Karga a second before he realized that Mando was thinking that she’d been arrested and was waiting in her cell to be collected. “Oh no, she’s just waiting back there for you to get here. She’s not in trouble - right now. I’ll go get her,” he said as he stood up and excused himself to go retrieve the subject of their conversation. 

Stoically, Mando stood and put away the credits, resolving to hold onto Lily’s for her just in case she tried to use the funds to run away or cause more trouble. He looked at the weapons again on the table and picked up the blaster from the ship, tucking it away. He wasn’t quite ready to give that back to her yet. Arming her didn’t seem like the smartest course of action. He chuckled to himself at the variety of weapons laid out in front of him, the Republic issue knife catching his eye. It was a strange collection of short and long range weapons, but they wouldn’t do anything if she didn’t know how to use them. He contemplated them as Karga came back with Lily, gripping her upper arm tightly as he led her in. 

She looked irritated and unamused, wrenching her arm from his grasp as they stopped in front of Mando. He looked down at her, studying her from behind the safety of his helmet. His face was unreadable under the beskar helm and unable to betray his surprise at her appearance. It seemed Cara had been right; she was not a child. Her fear had infantilized her, but she didn’t seem like the same scared girl he had left. More than a head shorter than him, Lily looked up at him, zeroing in on his eyes behind his mirrored visor. She bit the corner of her lip and rolled it around in her mouth, watching him and waiting for him to speak. 

“Are you ready?” was what he managed, voice crackling through the modulator in his helmet. 

She nodded her head and shifted, grabbing the straps of her backpack. She bounced on her heels to move the pack up her back and adjusted the straps so it sat up higher. She reeled back a little from the change in balance point, but recovered quickly, tightly smiling. Over her shoulder, Karga looked at him expectantly. 

“If she packed it, she can carry it,” he spoke over her head. Karga frowned, expecting more from his friend. 

“I don’t need your help,” she shot back, rising up on her tiptoes to put herself in his line of vision. Mando smiled under his helmet, amused by her determination. Her hands were holding the straps on her shoulders, thumbs hooked under the chest strap; she was rocking back on her heels then forward onto her toes. She fell off balance again, and Mando’s hand shot out and grabbed the chest clip, keeping her from tumbling backwards. He pulled her forward until she was flat on her feet; she smiled sheepishly but didn’t hide her face. Mando sighed and undid the chest clip with a quick flick of his fingers and caught the pack’s shoulder strap before it slid off her back onto the floor. She quickly moved out of the way, twisting her arms out of the straps so he could throw it over his shoulder. He carried her load on one shoulder, not bothering to use the other strap. He nodded to his friend and said ‘thank you’, instructing him to give his regards to Cara, and motioned for Lily to follow him as he left the magistrate’s office. 

As they entered the street, Mando used his free hand to grab Lily’s arm before she could run off. Instead of fighting as he had expected her to, she surprised him by sliding her hand into his the same way that she had the first day. He looked down, confused at their joined hands, then at her, but she was looking ahead, walking towards where she knew the ship had docked, and dragged him behind her. 

“Hey-” he stopped them in the middle of the street and tugged her hand to get her attention. She looked confused, but she came back to him. “You need anything else before we leave?” 

“No, why?” she looked at him quizzically, swinging their hands between them. 

“I don’t know… stuff you might need…” Mando looked away from her, choosing to focus instead on the city life going on around them. There were shop stalls with bright awnings, some more patched than others, but all of them clean and full of smiling shopkeepers and patrons alike. 

“No, that’s why I packed what I needed?” she said back, not understanding. 

“I thought your kind needed special things...” He still looked out into the street. People walked around them as they blocked the flow of pedestrian traffic, so Mando pulled them to the side of the street and stepped between two buildings. She followed along behind him and disappeared in the alley with him. She looked around thoughtfully a moment before asking him what he meant. He sighed uncomfortably and lowered his voice to ask if she needed any feminine products for the trip. The laugh that bubbled up was loud and filled the space around them, bouncing off the walls and echoing down the length of the narrow access between the buildings. She’d dropped his hand and clasped her over her mouth, stifling the giggles as Mando stood to the side, shifting awkwardly on his feet and adjusting the pack on his back. Eventually, Lily got a hold of herself and stopped laughing at his embarrassment at such a natural thing and thanked him for being so  _ attentive _ . She held her hand out to him to take so they could continue on, and they emerged together from the shadows of the alleyway and resumed their walk to the ship. 

“No, it’s fine. Cara got me the implant after she caught - “ Lily wrapped herself around his arm as they walked, looking up at his helmet, trailing off as his hand squeezed hers. 

“Caught what,” he demanded, looking forward as he walked, but tone holding a warning. 

“Hmm? Nothing.” She laid her head on his arm as they meandered through town, Mando slowing his pace to one that was slow and lazy. “What did they tell you?” 

Mando looked down at the woman clinging to his arm. She was squinting into the sun, as she looked at the street and life around her. She seemed to be taking special care to really see what was around her, basking in the mundaneness of planet life before piling back onto a ship and heading out for another who knew how long. She looked peaceful as she soaked it all in, smiling gently as she looked up at him. When she saw him already watching her, her face fell and she asked again. 

“He said you were too smart for the trouble you were causing.” They both looked forward as they leisurely walked towards the shipyard. “What did they catch you doing?” he asked again.

She was quiet for a while, but a quick glance at her next to him showed she was deep in thought, thinking on her words and weighing them carefully before she shared them. She opened her mouth then closed it again, and he allowed more silence and waited for her to speak in her own time. A few minutes later, his patience was rewarded. 

“You ever do something stupid just because you want to feel alive?” 

Mando couldn't say he had, so he didn’t say anything. The crunching of their boots on the sandy ground was loud between them, the sounds of city life fading into the background. His silence urged her to continue. 

“I got drunk and brought home an X-Wing pilot. He was still there when she woke me up.” She pulled her hand out of his and folded her arms across her chest and walked ahead, seeing the ship and walking off towards it, running away from him and the conversation. Mando sighed and went off to pay the bill, leaving Lily standing alone, waiting for him to come back. When he did, she grabbed his hand again. 

“Um, you got a scan on that helmet that will tell us if anyone is on there?” she asked quietly, voice dropping as she tried to step back behind him. The pack on his back blocked her way, so she stayed at his side, her grip tightening. Mando heard her breath quicken and noted her thick swallow. 

“I do,” he paused. “No one is on there, Lily. It’s just us.” Mando entered the ship, dragging her behind him, answering questions about how he knew, and what kinds of scanners he had in his helmet and what he would do if someone was on the ship. Her rapid fire questions were all delivered in urgent whispers. The laughing woman from the alley had been replaced by the scared girl in the engine room. She followed him through the ship as he checked for her, assuring that there was no else there besides them. When they reached her room, he dropped her things off, groaning as he hefted the bag off his shoulder and placed it on one of the beds. He expected her to stay there and unpack, but didn’t argue when she followed him out and joined him in the cockpit. He watched her out of the side of his eye as she climbed into the co-pilot’s seat, folding her leg underneath her. Mando ran through the take off sequence while she ran through one of her own. Heavy, metallic thuds rang through the ship, and Mando realized she was closing all the blast doors. 

“Hey,” he put his hand on top of hers. Her head snapped to look at him. Her brows were drawn, mouth set in a tight line, jaw clenched. “Run the scan. It’s just us.” She held his gaze fiercely, plucking his hand off hers and dropping it away.

“Could you get through?” she shot back.

Mando sighed, knowing she was right. He would be able to get into the cockpit one way or the other. He assumed that her family had used the same tactic when they had been under attack. It hadn’t worked, but Mando wasn’t cruel enough to point that out. Instead, he nodded his head sharply and watched Lily spin in her chair and go back to locking down the ship. The loud clanging of the doors shutting rolled through the ship, getting closer as they separated each section of the ship. Each time they closed, Lily tensed. Her eyes were glued to the monitor in front of her as she flipped through screens. She was folded in on herself, arms wrapped around torso, chewing on her bottom lip, leaning forward and hovering over the console. It wasn’t until the sound of the blast doors outside of the cockpit slamming shut behind them that she let go of her lip and relaxed back into her chair. As he fired the engines up and prepared to leave Nevarro behind, Mando made an impulsive decision and removed her blaster from his belt, turning it so he could hold the barrel as a handle and use the other end to poke her in the arm. She looked at it curiously, but took her weapon from him. 

“On the ship only.” She nodded and thanked him quietly, letting the blaster sit on her lap as she stared ahead blankly. Sighing, Mando gave up talking, recognizing the dissociation on her face, and engaged the hyperdrive. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Lily discovers MREs

“Hey, wake up.” Mando’s eyes fluttered open behind his visor and it took him a moment to orient himself enough to switch off the light blocking filter on the side of his helmet. Lily was gently shaking his shoulder and trying to get his attention. He kept looking at her drifting in and out of focus while she apologized for waking him, her hand still on his shoulder. She was smiling sheepishly at him, head cocked to the side, big messy bun flopped over like it always was. She was wearing what he’d come to know as her uniform: black leggings and an oversized sweater hanging off her shoulders. He noticed the way it gapped open as she bent over him, and he stared blankly at the swell of breasts as they filled in the cups of her bra before his brain caught up to his eyes. He looked away quickly, ashamed of himself, hand coming up to swat hers off of his shoulder. Startled, she jumped back, knocking into the co-pilot's chair and tumbling back into it. She held her wrist in her hand a second; he’d knocked into her with his beskar gauntlet. Rolling her wrist around, cracking the joint, her mouth in a small circle of surprise, before her stomach rumbled loudly and disrupted the tension between them. She shook her hand out while they sheepishly apologized at the same time at each other, him for unintentionally hurting her wrist, her for scaring him awake. They smiled tentatively at each other, even though she couldn’t see under his helmet, and it was then that Mando noticed a couple of packages of freeze dried meals on the small flat surface by her console. 

“I’m hungry, and this is all I could find,” she said, grabbing one of them and offering it to him. He shook his head, not interested in eating, still in disbelief and upset with himself that he’d looked down her shirt. She shrugged to herself and shifted in her seat, tucking her leg under her as she always did. She kicked her toe against the floor, spinning her seat left and right as she flipped the package over and read the information on it. 

The only noise in the room was the packing crinkling as she decided she was ready to give it a try. She struggled with the airtight wrapping, at one point growling at it as she tried to pull it open. Mando watched her frustration for a moment, waiting for her to pass it across the aisle and ask for his help, but Lily stubbornly continued trying to do it herself, refusing to ask him to lend a hand. When she put the corner of the package in her mouth in an attempt to bite it open, he made the decision for her and took it from her gently. He pointed out the small perforated notch on the edge of the packaging and pulled on it, expecting it to open, but it did not. Lily tried to hide her smugness at his failure and rolled her lips into her mouth and hid her smile of vindication poorly. Choosing to ignore it, Mando pulled a knife off his calf and cut it open. 

She thanked him quietly and accepted the open bag back when he handed it to her. She sniffed it cautiously and gagged at the smell. 

“Oh no. That’s putrid.” She waved her hand in front of her face to clear the smell and held the bag back out to him. “That smells like a dead Mon Calamari dipped in a vat of decomposing tauntaun waste. I’m not eating that.” 

Mando took the bag from her and checked the side of it for the expiration date. It was fine, and he told her as much. He held it back out to her, expecting her to take it, but she refused. Her face was contorted in disgust, sides of her mouth as far down as they could go.

“Maybe you can’t smell through your helmet, but that is yucky, and I can’t eat that.” She moved her hands in front of her, marking a big “X” through the air.

“You haven’t even tried it,” he argued, putting the bag back in her lap. 

“I don’t need to. It’s gross.” She took the bag and put it back in his lap. Mando took a deep breath, doing his best not to be irritated that this was what he had been woken up for. This was the first comfortable sleep he had experienced in days, his back finally feeling healed enough to let him completely relax into the seat. And here she was, complaining about the food.

“Was there something you needed?” he asked, deciding he didn’t care if she knew he was irritated or was bothered by it. He yawned under his helmet, voice modulator turning it into a roar as he stretched out his arms and legs, straightening them through the space.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were that tired.” Immediately her demeanor changed, and she looked truly sorry that she had woken him. “Why don't you go lay down? I can handle things. It’s not like I don’t know how to fly my own ship. I’ll get you if anything comes up.” Mando looked between her and the stars flying by outside as they hurtled through space in hyperdrive. “Come on. Trust me. It’ll be  _ fine. _ ” She smiled sweetly at him, pushing stray hair behind her ears and touching his knee. 

Immediately, Mando distrusted her and doubted things would be  _ fine _ in any sense of the word. He told her “ _ no”  _ and brushed her hand off of him. 

“But you look so tired, Mando, and it’s such a long flight, just go away and lay down somewhere. Take my parent’s room. They won’t mind. It’s fine.” The cloying kindness sneaking into her voice confirmed his instincts. She was up to something, and he refused to fall for it. This was already so far beyond what he had signed up for. He had no idea how he had gotten saddled with another person to care for, but he was tired, and he missed his son.

“What do you want, Lily?” he asked point blank, raising his eyebrows at her, even though she couldn’t see them. She feigned indignance for a moment before she gave up and huffed, throwing her arms up and pouting. 

“I want to go grocery shopping. When you asked if I needed anything, I assumed you’d accounted for the essentials -- like food. “This,” she grabbed his wrist as he tried to pass off the open bag to her. “this is not food. This is a military ration for prisoners of war, and I am not military or whatever. I’m used to food.  _ Real food _ . And that’s what I want!” She was starting to work herself up. Her chest was starting to constrict, and her eyes were getting wider. “This is my ship that was stolen from my family, and I don’t want to go wherever we are going. I want food. I just want food. Is that so much to ask?” Lily was rambling on, stuck in a loop, breath coming in choppy, shallow waves, and the rims of her eyes were starting to redden and fill up with tears.She continued ranting about how the ship was hers, about how Mando never paid her, and how Karga had promised - something about something. She wasn’t speaking clearly anymore.. He listened to her continue to ramp herself up until only every other word or so came through coherently, but what she was saying wasn’t as important as how she was choking on her own voice. Her hands were now batting tears away as soon as they escaped her eyes, and she looked desperately at him, begging him to take her to get food, as if the food was what was upsetting her. 

“And I can cook. I can cook lots of things. My sister and I could cook. We cooked every day. We helped. We cleaned up, and I’ll clean up this, too. I promise.” Mando watched her begging him, his mind short circuiting around what to do to stop her and calm her down. She’d gotten herself so worked up that her skin was pinking. She was hyperventilating and panicking. Lily had slid out of her seat and was kneeling on the floor, hanging off his knee, crying and pleading with him to take her to the market. 

“...I can stock it, and keep it stocked, and I can feed us, and we won't have to eat that fake food…” She just kept going on and on.

Between the stars whizzing by outside, flashing blue and white light into the cockpit and Lily’s frantic voice getting smaller and smaller, the chaos of the moment screamed in Mando’s mind. If there was ever a time where he wanted to take his helmet off, throw it against the wall and storm out of the room, it was this now. Her sobs were filling his helmet, pulling back memories of having to calm a shrieking Grogu, and all at once, the intensity of the last two years slammed into him just like the loss of Lily’s family had hit her. He couldn’t take her hysterics any more, and she needed to catch her breath. She was sucking in air, but she wasn’t exhaling or getting enough oxygen. Without a second thought and acting only on instinct provided by past experiences, Mando reached down and pulled Lily up, grabbing her under her arms and hoisting her onto his lap. As soon as he settled her on his thighs, her arms shot out and went around his neck, and she clung to him. She cried against his shoulder armor, the top of her head fitting into the cut-out in his helmet. Her legs hung over the armrest of his chair, and she folded herself into him. Mando put his arms around her - one between her shoulder blades and the other resting on her thigh - and he did what had always worked: he rocked and hushed. Drawing slow circles on her back, he quieted her, reminding her to breathe. His voice droned through the modulator in a quiet, velvet, mechanical voice, counting her breaths and helping her slow them to match his. 

It didn’t take long for her arms to loosen around his neck; now she was simply holding onto him instead of clinging to him as if he was her only tether to reality. Her tears had stopped, and only a stuttering sniffle snuck out every now and then when she inhaled. Still, Mando sat with her cradled on his lap, no longer rocking back and forth on his chair. His hand had dropped from between her shoulders; his elbow now rested on the armrest, hand laying on her lower back. His other hand was still on her leg, his thumb rubbing a slow line on her thigh in time with their breathing. It was quiet between them with just their breathing accompanying the sounds of the ship. Space outside was quiet. 

Mando tucked his chin and looked down at her head on his shoulder, cheek squished against his shoulder paldron, forcing her mouth into a pouted circle. She looked up at him with long, wet eyelashes, again, finding his eyes behind his visor. She held them for a moment, and he looked back, hand stilling on her thigh. The corners of her mouth twitched and her brow dropped as if she was contemplating speaking, but she changed her mind and settled back against him. She let go of his neck and fiddled with the ammo strap that transected his chest, tapping on the ends of the little charges. Freed from the overwhelming chaos, they sat quietly as the mood broke to quiet. Lily sighed heavily and sat up on his lap, wriggling as she reached for the ammo strap and pulled it over his head and down his arm. She tugged at it harshly, and he lifted his hips, holding her on his lap so she wouldn’t fall when she yanked it off. She tossed it onto her open seat and resumed her position with her head on his shoulder, this time tucking her arms against him. Mando adjusted himself in his seat, kicking his legs out as far as he could without sliding her off his lap. 

“Do I need to move?” her voice was meek as she addressed the gem shaped hollow of his chestplate. She tapped her finger against the recess, picking at the engraving lines. 

Mand patted her thigh as he answered. “No, you’re fine. You’re just…” he struggled to find the words. “...bigger than a baby.” was what he settled on, and she chuckled. Her smile pleased him and the spots where her body touched his felt like they were being warmed by the sun. 

“It’s okay.” She slid her legs off the armrest and put her feet on the floor, giving him her back as she stood. “I’m okay now.” She smiled weakly over her shoulder and pushed some rogue hair behind her ear. Her shoulders were hunched, eyes red as she stood in between him and the console. She slid out into the open space between the captain’s chairs, wiping her cheeks with the sweater that she’d pulled over her fists. “Um, you mind opening the doors?” She stuttered through her request, shoving her sleeves up to her elbows. Always fidgeting. Mando turned, stuck in his seat with words blocking the back of his throat. She was waiting for him to open the blast doors so she could leave. He watched her pull the elastic from around her bun and shake her hair out, scrubbing her fingers over her scalp and combing her fingers through her hair before she gathered it all back up and put it back into the exact same bun. As he reached for the controls and opened the doors, the smell of honey and flowers filtered through his helmet. Lily went to leave, but Mando’s arm shot out, blocking her exit, hand wrapping around her hip, and walked her backwards back towards his seat. When she was close enough, he took her wrist in her hand and guided her back on his lap. Sighing contentedly, Lily sunk back against him, letting her head loll back on his shoulder. 

“Hey,” he said, voice soft in her right ear. A shiver ran through her body at the sound of his voice -- the low, husky tone sending chills up the back of her neck. Mando laced his hands around her waist holding her on his lap, and hers slid on top of his. “I promise we will get you whatever you want when I’m done with, ok?” She turned her head on his shoulder to look at him and nodded in agreement, dropping her eyes to their hands draped across her stomach. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again choosing instead to press her fingertips against his. They sat in the quiet, stars still streaming by, both of them watching her fingers walking across the tips of his gloves. 

“Mando,” she finally said something, unlacing his hands and moving them onto her thighs, placing them there palms up. She was quiet and forced calm through the small room with her deliberate movements. He grunted his acknowledgement as she sat up and adjusted her seat on his lap. Mando’s breath hissed as she found a more comfortable spot, and she apologized as if she believed she was causing him pain instead of just making him uncomfortable. She continued on, starting to pull his gloves off. Curious, he watched her remove them and toss them softly onto the pile she’d created on the other chair. They were added to the stack with a gentle smack of the leather hitting against the other items. 

“Mando,” she started again, turning one of his palms down on her thigh and picking up the other of his large hands and bringing it up to her face. She laced one hand through his, twisting their conjoined hands in front of them. He let her control his body while he basked in the physical touch. “What are we doing?” she asked. His answer was quick while she traced the veins on the top of his hand with her free hand.

“I don’t know.” 

She turned around and gave a weird look and dropped their hands into her lap. “You don’t know how long this is going to take?” She looked at him like he had four heads, but her thumb was still running up and down the length of his absentmindedly. She shrugged when he didn’t answer immediately, and turned back around, leaning back onto his chest again and watching out the curved window of the cockpit. 

“Maybe a day or so. Depends.” His mind caught up to the question, and he spoke carefully. They sat together quietly, rubbing the pads of their thumbs against each other’s. “Karga gave me all low-priority fobs.” She cringed, acknowledging that it was probably her fault that he was being sent out for petty jobs. He shrugged again, and Lily complained about how he was jostling her around.

“Ya know,” she started after they had sat in silence for a few minutes. “I think you’re supposed to take me with you and teach me how to do that stuff. I don’t think I was supposed to hear that conversation…” she trailed off and sat still, staring off into space. The moment between them slipped away.

Mando resisted the urge to scoff or chastise her because he completely rejected that idea. He refused and joined her in their comfortable silence again, hands still intertwined, touching each other. Neither of them moved, but one of them had to speak first, so he did. “Stay here on the ship and wait for me. Do not leave this ship without me. Under any circumstances.” He was firm but gentle. Lily opened her mouth to argue, but he wasn’t done. “Lily,” he softened his tone as he continued, “you can’t even walk around the ship without the blast doors closed. I can’t look after you and do my job.” Mando could tell there was something she wanted to say, but she was refusing to. He wasn’t interested in fighting so he didn’t push it. 

She pursed her lips, and they twitched as she held herself back. Instead of speaking, Lily made her feelings known by releasing his hand and tearing out of his lap. Her mouth turned into a flat, angry line as she stood up and hovered over the console, furiously mashing buttons. The sounds of the blast doors throughout the ship opening echoed up through the ship. Face strong and determined, Lily stared at Mando as he sat in his seat, and even though she tried to hide it, she flinched as the ones outside the cockpit creaked open. Her spite may have given her the courage to open the doors, but did not prepare her for what it meant. She smiled tightly at him, and Mando knew that anything he said would provoke her, so he just stretched his legs out in front of him. Yawning through the modulator again, he crossed his arms over his chest, and waited for it. 

It didn’t take long. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Lily struggle with being able to leave the cockpit knowing that all of her safety precautions were disabled. He was sure that she had more safeguards in place - he knew she had weapons hidden in places throughout the ship. He’d heard her scurrying through the walls, finding a safe little hiding spot somewhere in the bowels of the ship. But the blast doors - this first line of defense - they were her security blanket, and even though it hurt him to see her so pained by it, having all of the blast doors closed all of the time was impractical and unsustainable. Lily made to move towards the door but paused before ever lifting her foot off the ground. She was picking at her fingers nervously, and she swallowed hard. She darted a look at him to see if he was watching, but he pretended he wasn’t, curious to see if she could manage it. She just stood there, staring at the open door, frozen except for the twisting of her fingers and the rise and fall of her chest. Mando kept an eye on her, and when her breaths started quickening again, he knew to intervene. Calling her name, he took her hand again, shaking it to get her attention. He instructed her to clear off the seat she’d thrown everything onto, and he re-engaged the blast doors to the cockpit. As they closed, she heaved a hefty sigh of relief and sank into the chair, items on her lap. Mando took them from her, sliding his gloves back on and then his cross-chest ammo belt. All that was left in her lap was the freeze dried meal replacement that had caused this whole scene. 

“Eat,” he ordered. Lily scowled at him, but picked up the package dutifully. She sniffed it again and barely held back a disgusted face before smiling tightly and nibbling a bite. Satisfied that it tasted better than it smelled, she kicked her feet up on the console and snacked away with a sarcastic announcement about how tasty it was. She gagged as she swallowed, and Mando bolted up in his seat, already looking for something to catch her puke in. He was about to tell her to throw up in the package itself, but he caught her twinkling eyes and realized she wasn’t serious. He pointed his finger at her, and she smiled broadly, popping another piece into her mouth. She crunched it obnoxiously, and he decided she was fine. Rolling his eyes, Mando turned off his visor and told her to wake him when they reached their destination. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we learn a thing or two about names....

Mando cleared his throat and hit the comm link on his wrist again. “Come in, Trouble. ” He waited a few seconds. Nothing. “Mando to Trouble.”

There was no response. Mando looked around him at the shipyard, not really expecting to see anything helpful or out of the ordinary. He tightened his grip on his captured quarry as he scanned the area. The sun was starting to get lower on the horizon, and the nightly winds were picking up, coating everything with a fine mist of yellow-red sand. Merchants were closing up their stalls; window shutters were being pulled down on buildings. It looked like everyone around was getting ready for nightfall and the sandstorms it brought with it. 

“Trouble wit’ the missus?” the convict standing next to him snorted. Mando ignored the Zabrak standing next to him and jerked him along as they walked around the outside of the ship. Lily still wasn’t responding, and the quarry was a talkative one. Mando paid him little attention, but he listened with half a mind anyway. He was going on about someone he used to know, and something that was said stuck in his mind. Mando stopped, holding his palm up to the man and told him to repeat himself. 

“I asked if Saul owed you money, too.”

Mando had no idea what the man was referring to, but did not give the impression that he didn’t. Cringing internally and showing no outward signs of uneasiness, he knew there wasn’t a response that didn’t complicate things. And it was no great leap of logic to assume that Lily was one of Saul’s daughters - whether that be a first name or a surname - that details weren’t important. 

_ Lily.  _

Mando’s thoughts zeroed in on her again, and he tagged her radio again and waited for an answer from her on the comm. He was annoyed that he was right in expecting her to freeze up. He had anticipated and planned for her inability to handle the pressure, but Mando would have placed money on her being strong enough to open the _kriffing_ _ door _ for him. 

_ Early that day…. _

“Ok, now repeat it back to me,” Mando ordered. Lily was sitting in his seat -- the pilot’s seat -- using her hands against the console to push herself back and forth as she spun around in the chair.

She wasn’t listening, or at least didn’t seem to be, so Mando had no qualms about grabbing the arms of the chair and stopping her from twisting to and fro. He slammed his hands onto the armrests, caging her in, and a dizzy Lily grabbed onto his forearms as the room kept spinning. Mando waited silently for her answer. 

“Lock all the blast doors when you leave. Stay here in the cockpit. Don’t leave the ship. Don’t talk to strangers. Call if anything bad happens, and don’t open the doors for anyone but you.” She was smiling at him, but her raised eyebrow showed she was teasing him. When he didn’t move, she dropped the smile and apologized, assuming an appropriately stoic face. Satisfied, he stood up and moved away, tugging on his gloves as he exited the cockpit. Lily was up and following him, immediately breaking rule #2: stay in the cockpit.

“This won’t take long. I could be back in a few hours or in a day or two. Keep your comm on.” Lily watched him go to the weapons locker and do a final rundown of what he needed. She swallowed hard as the realization he was leaving sunk in. 

“How do I know it’s you though?” she asked, jumping as he swung the locker door closed and started to walk towards the stairs to the cargo area. Again, Lily followed behind closely, her small steps echoing after his heavy ones on the metal steps as he descended. Mando stopped at the bottom, turning around to face her. Lily was looking at her feet as she took the steps and didn’t see that he had stopped. Cursing, Mando caught her as she ran into his chest plate, and held her at arms’ length, hands on her shoulders. Even standing on a step above him, she was still too short to look him in the eyes. 

“You will know it’s me because I will tell you it’s me.” He spoke plainly with just a touch of annoyance sneaking into his tone. Humoring Lily and her moods had become a full time job, and Mando did not have the strength or willpower -- or desire -- to continue coddling her. He reminded himself that he could not enable her paranoia or anxiety anymore, but quickly lost the willpoder to deny her when her eyes opened wide with big, round pupils as she searched for some reassurance from him. 

Sighing, he dropped his hands from her shoulders, and she leaned forward against his chest plate, resting her head in the center of the beskar panel. Her hands slid under his cloak and rounded his back. He hadn’t put his jet-pack on yet, and her hands slid easily under the edge of the fabric vest his armor was mounted to. Her hands were small and warm, and he wondered if they felt as warm to her as they did to him through the thin black shirt he wore underneath it all. 

“But how do I know it’s actually you?” Lily turned her head and spoke towards the cargo bay wall, interrupting his thoughts. “Anyone could say that,” she argued quietly while absentmindedly drawing her fire-hot hands up and down his back as best as she could. Mando had learned she was only this soft spoken when she was remembering something, and usually, those memories were bittersweet. 

“Lily,” he said her name delicately, putting his hands back on her shoulders and standing her back up. “Just tell me what would make you feel better. I need to go.” 

She had her head bowed, not looking at him, but she nodded in agreement and leaned her hip against the railing. She kicked at the stair with the toe of her shoe.

“We used call signs. Dad was Papa Bird. Mom was Momma Bear. Rose was Bucket. And we had danger names too,” she continued, eyes widening. “If anyone used their danger name, it meant it was time to fly. No questions asked. Just go.” She skidded one hand off the other and mimicked a ship taking off and flying into the atmosphere.

Mando was quiet. “Bucket?” he repeated blankly. That was what his brain had latched onto. While it wasn’t a bad idea for families traveling into unknown worlds to have a safety system like this, relying on others for his safety had always been a temporary situation, and he’d never had a need for a warning system based on a name. He still thought there was more to the story of what happened to Lily and her family than she was letting on or was even aware she knew, but he couldn’t care less in the moment. Time was wasting. 

“Ok.” His one word answer was clipped. He crossed his hands over his chest impatiently, but then dropped them so he didn’t appear as irritated as he was. Instead he leaned back against the railing opposite Lily. “What was yours?” He already regretted asking. 

“Oh, it was Trouble.” she quipped quickly without emotion, pushing her hair behind her ear. 

Mando stared at her, unmoving for a few seconds. 

“What?” Lily’s cheeks flushed, and she put her hands on her cheeks, feeling them heat. “What’s wrong?” She fidgeted with her sweater hem then fixed the collar over her shoulders as she waited for an answer as to why he was staring at her like she had two heads. 

“Trou - was that the danger name?” The irony was lost on her but not on him. She shook her head. “What was your ‘trouble name’?” Mando shifted against the railing, 

“Liliana,” she answered simply. While he wanted an explanation with more substance than that, Mando didn’t have the time to spend on a rambling story, so he moved past it. “You need a name,” she pressed. 

“Mando is fine.” His answer was clipped. Time was definitely wasting, and this goodbye was taking far too long. Mando straightened up and went back to his final checks, making sure his suit was stocked with enough ammo. He went over to where his jet-pack was kept. At least her clinginess had reminded him not to forget it. Not that he would have left his jet-pack behind -- that was a mistake he would only make once -- but he was thankful for the reminder because it had cost him so much before.

“No, it has to be a nickname.” Lily had plopped down into the center of the steps, watching everything that he was doing. 

“Mando is a nickname.” He supplied her an answer and continued on with his tasks, only stopping when he realized she hadn’t responded. 

“So what’s your name?” Such an innocent and heavy question that he didn’t want to get into right then, but something about the way she sat with her knees to her chest, sinking into a smaller ball as she grew more and more nervous that he was leaving - something about that had him turning back around and kneeling in front of her. 

“Hey.” His voice was firm and low and captured her attention immediately. He lowered his voice and spoke solemnly. “My name is Din Djarin, and if you ever hear it, I want you to shoot anyone you see and run like hell. Do you understand?” Mando saw the same fear that had been there the first day he met her in the engine room flash through her eyes again. But unlike that day, the terror dissipated as she looked at him, and she nodded. Lily’s blind faith in made him feel uneasy; it hadn’t been earned. But still, she nodded in immediate agreement, the ridiculous bun on the top of her head bobbing around like an off-balance droid rolling down a ramp. Mando studied her for a second, trying to reconcile what he knew and what he suspected about her and her family with what Lily thought she knew about them. He toyed with the possibility that she was withholding information from him, but couldn’t make up his mind whether she was or wasn’t. With one last look at her sweet face, Mando gave a curt nod and rose, leaving her on the stairs to wait.

_ Presently….. _

The irony of Mando making Lily sit and wait for him while he demanded immediate action from her was completely lost on him as he opened the ship with the device on his forearm. He was tired of waiting, and waiting with a quarry while locked out of his ship was dangerous. Mando was more angry than disappointed, the idiot he was pushing up the ramp was irritating him more, and Lily still hadn’t answered. This had been a test of sorts, and she had failed. He’d hoped she’d have been able to handle such a simple, basic task since she had been coming out of her shell, but clearly not. At least he had the foresight to make a contingency plan.

“Ooooh,” the bounty dragged the sound out and laughed to himself. “I love what you’ve done with the place. It’s so cozy and homey.” 

Mando ignored him still and pushed him towards the carbonite freezing machine. The man in binders didn’t even bother resisting and let himself be led willingly. Mando was ready to shove him into carbonite, but the pair of them stopped as the comm chirped. There were no words, just static, as if she’d just pressed the button to get their attention but refused to speak. The two looked at each other in unison. The horned man smiled with dirty teeth, breath assaulting Mando through his helmet as Lily’s voice cracked through the tinny speaker. As she spoke, the sound of the doors to the cargo hold opening echoed around them in real time and lagging behind with the radio transmission. 

“Well, as I live and breathe,” the alien man said breathlessly. “She looks just like ‘er mother, don’t she?” He held his hand to his chest, holding his two hearts and looked at Lily as she stood at the top of the steps, voice echoing in around the cargo bay and traveling to her.

Mando’s head shot to Lily. He willed her to stay put, and desperately hoped she’d listen.

“What did you say? What did he say?” Before Mando had even had a chance to tell her to stay put,to hide away, she had flown down the stairs and crossed the hold to them. Her face was confused, and she looked back and forth between the two men for answers. Realizing Mando had none, she stepped forward, trying to get closer to the one who had spoken. 

“What about her?” Lily tried to get closer, seeking out answers. Mando shot his arm out across her chest, holding her back from the man who was staring at her with stars in his eyes. Lily ripped Mando’s arm away and tried to advance. He didn’t let her advance an inch, turning to face her head-on, standing in front of her like an unmovable mountain. Setting her jaw and narrowing her eyes at him, she set her fists on her hips and squared off with him. She tried to step to the side, but he followed, anticipating her move. Lily repeated the attempt, trying to fake him out, ducking to the left before twisting around to the right and trying to bypass him by rolling under his arm. Again, Mando stopped her with a well placed foot and blocked her. She scowled at him, growling deep in her throat, outright aggressive towards him; her mind was more focused on what she would do to get past him and completely unprepared for what she would do if she did. When she stubbornly tried to out-maneuver him again, Mando grabbed her upper arm, and she winced and tried to pull away, but only managed to be pulled along as Mando dragged her away from the man she had set her sights on. He threw a warning over his shoulder to the man, threatening him if he should run, and shifted his focus back to Lily. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes threw curses at Mando for her. When he had determined they were far enough away, Mando let Lily jerk her arm free, and she instantly tried to bolt back to where she had been removed from. Again, Mando set himself firmly in front of her. She huffed and swatted her hair out of her face.

“Lilianna,” Mando lowered his voice, deep and rumbling as her name spilled out from under his helmet, sheltering her from the chaotic being behind them. The use of her  _ danger name _ seemed to disengage the part of her brain that was now stuck on  _ fight _ instead of  _ flight _ , and she stilled instantly. The anger in her face was washed away and replaced by concern and trepidation with the four syllables. She looked up at him expectantly, looking for instruction and answers. He reached for her hand and squeezed it quickly for reassurance, releasing it almost as fast as he had held it, risking contact for her benefit, even as the man behind them hooped and hollered at their touch. 

“Go fly.” He gave the order, jerking his head towards the stairs, ordering her to take off, and she nodded sharply, changed completely from who she had been a moment ago. Mando could see the confusion and doubt in herself like a riptide in her mind, catching onto thoughts and holding them under until they dissipated. 

Turning sharply on her heel, she jogged up the stairs, and Mando returned to his duty of encasing the criminal in carbonite. He felt the ship rise and leave the atmosphere, and he made his way upstairs to the cockpit solemnly with questions that he doubted she could answer, hoped she couldn’t answer. Mando was reassured when he passed through the cockpit door and found Lily folded up into her normal little ball of bad posture in her seat. One knee was bent up under her; she rested her cheek against the other as she propped her foot up on the edge of the seat. She didn’t look at him when he sat down, so Mando looked at her, immediately feeling guilty for finding familiarity in her pain. Her face was blank and expressionless, and she blinked slowly. She held her eyes closed, curled lashes fanning against her cheeks, and gathered her thoughts. She sighed heavily, lifting her eyes to the windshield, lashes sweeping up and brushing her brow bone. She was disconnected as she flew, piloting with the part of her brain that had flown this ship a thousand times before. 

He watched her some more, weighing his options with her, carefully deciding how to approach her mental state. He had questions, and no doubt she did, too, but the goal was to keep her from spiriting away into her engine cubby hole. Mando leaned back in his chair, swinging it around to face her. He looked at her profile while she failed to register his presence. He looked at her hands and her feet. There was always a part of her moving or fidgeting, but Lily sat still, chewing on the inside of her lip. Her fingers didn’t drum out a beat on the console like they normally did, and her feet weren’t tapping, and she wasn’t twisting around in her seat while she talked to him. Mando sighed, and spoke softly. When he said her name, she jumped, dropping both feet onto the ground and sitting like a normal person. 

The edges of Lily’s mouth twitched and twisted, either in attempted speech or withheld tears, and Mando greedily hoped it was the former. Unspeaking, she looked through him, this time opening her mouth and closing it again quickly. Mando jerked his head at her, beckoning her to come over, and she took the invitation, crawling onto his lap, legs flung over the armrest. Lily hooked her hand over the top of his chest plate, sandwiching her fingers between his shirt and beskar and pushed the hair out of her face. The two sighed in tandem, then chuckled in unison at their timing. 

“Lily,” Mando was the first to speak, and she shook her head and put her hand over his mouth on top of the beskar. Even if her hand hadn’t physically slapped over lips to quiet him, the censure felt as though it had. 

“Don’t,” she warned, dropping her hand back into her lap. “Just shut up.”

With nothing else to do but sigh, Mando let her sit for however long, rubbing her back in soft circles until she decided she was done and crawled off his lap, complaining about how uncomfortable he was covered in his metal exoskeleton. She took her seat next to him, folding her leg under her again, and started complaining that this didn’t mean that she wasn’t still owed a market visit for groceries. Mando tuned her out while he stretched, joints popping as he lengthened his arms and legs, feet kicking up against the underside of the console. 

“Lily-- “ he warned, cutting her off in mid-sentence. “I”m going to shower. When I come back, I need you to tell me about your family.” His tone left no room for her to argue, and she didn’t try to. Mando peeled himself out of his chair with a grunt and a moan, twisting his torso to crack his back, cloak shaking over the small space, raining grains of sand over the console and Lily. She batted them away, focusing on the mess instead of the instruction. Sensing the serious look under his helmet, she stopped and agreed and started to input the coordinates he gave her. He said her name, looking to say something else of substance or comfort, but she waived him off, dismissing him. Cursing under his breath, Mando left her to set course while he hopefully found some clarity while he washed the confusion and dirt of the day off him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a door opens.

By the time Mando returned to check on Lily, she was slumped in her seat, sleeping with her head propped up in her hand. Her cheek was squished against her palm, forcing her mouth into a cherubic pout. Countless loose hairs that had broken free from her ridiculous bun fell across her face, and as she slept, her breath pushed and pulled them along with every inhale and exhale. The sleeves of her sweater were pulled up over the heels of her hands: a lumpy, little, makeshift pillow to frame her sweet face. Mando sighed, slumping into his chair, stifling the tired groan that ached to wrench out when he sat. Kicking his feet on the floor, he swiveled the chair to face her as he leaned back and laced his hands across his chest. There he sat, his long legs spilling across the tiny space between the seats; this mountain of a man in armor caught up in watching a pseudo-stranger sleep. As he watched, she pulled in a shaky inhale and stuttered out the exhale. Lily smacked her lips, sending a rivulet of drool spilling out of the corner of her mouth. Mando’s face grimaced under his helmet as he watched the fabric of her sweater-hand-pillow grow dark as the spit soaked into it. Spell broken, Mando decided to wake her up and send her away. 

Reaching across the aisle, Mando shook her shoulder gently, and Lily woke with a smile for him. But as quickly as it flashed, the smile faded into annoyance when she realized she was being awoken. She glared at him and wiped her drool away with the back of her hand, dragging the sweater across her mouth. Ignoring her crankiness, Mando sent her off to her room, chuckling to himself at her reaction once she was out of earshot. With the hint of a smile that he would deny ever existed on his face, he settled into his captain’s seat for the next few hours. The plan was to get to Tatooine and dock in the atmosphere for the night before heading to the surface in the morning. Mando already regretted his decision to come here and wondered if it was possible to just turn around and act like it never happened, but the fuel indicator in the console in front of him made the decision for them.

Once they approached their destination, he threw the ship out of hyperspace, leaving it to hover in the atmosphere until morning when they would make their descent. Now that they had arrived and were no longer traveling, Mando questioned his decision more and more. The choice had been impulsive, and if Mando knew anything about himself, it was that he was anything  _ but _ impulsive. Some of his decisions up until now had been questionable, but always logical and beneficial. He was hoping that by coming straight to the top, he could both get answers and solve his problem in one visit. 

Stretching in his chair, he let out the groan he had stifled for far too long. He’d been holding it in for hours and the aches and pains that he had been ignoring hit him with a wave of physical and mental exhaustion. Lately, it had all been catching up with him. Even in this new ship, Mando fought the urge to peer over his shoulder to check on Grogu, but instead of the little, green guy, he saw Lily sitting in the seat. She usually even had a smile for him, and if she didn’t, whatever face she was pulling typically amused him enough to put a smile on his. At least Lily was a good distraction, if not a troublesome one. 

Finally, he admitted to himself that he was tired and gave into the knowledge that his body needed some real rest. Mando pulled himself out of the seat and started wandering back to quarters, stopping and grabbing a freeze-dried meal bag along the way. He sliced the top open with his knife like he had for Lily as he dug in. She was right; the packaging on these things was a bit defective, but they tasted just fine. He shoveled the crunchy, freeze dried pieces under his helmet and ate quickly, taking no time for enjoyment because, realistically, it was impossible to enjoy these things. Lily was right. They were terrible. Still, they were better than nothing, and thanks to his knee jerk reaction to Zabrak’s outburst, Mando had whisked them away to this sandy wasteland instead of to the market. He still wasn’t sure why he had done it; it was too late now, though. They were here, and all they had to eat were these shitty ready meals. Mando entertained the depressing thought that maybe these survival meals really were as bad as she said, and he’d been lowering his standards lower than where they should be. 

Popping another piece into his mouth, Mando slowed as he walked past Lily’s room. The door was almost closed, open just enough for him to curiously peer in. Mando stared at the small slit opening, popping another piece of food into his mouth, mind wandering nowhere in particular as he munched.The light in the corridor wasn’t particularly bright at this hour, but there was enough shadow to darken the doorway and bleed into the room, smothering it in darkness and hiding her inside. That was okay, though. He knew she was there, and that’s why he was lingering. There wasn’t much thought involved in it. He just stood and looked, eating his dinner, not bothering to go over and close the door or to walk through it. Mando just stood and ate until he was done and then walked away, wiping his glove off on the back of his thigh.

Entering his room, he closed the door behind him, pausing for a moment before leaving it cracked as Lily’s had been. He tilted his head at the openness, wondering if he had done it right - if there was some secret rule to keeping your door open or if just simply the act of having it ajar was enough of a message. Mando was unsure if she would accept the invitation, and he couldn’t tell if he was afraid of or hoping that she would. He entertained his own ridiculousness for only a moment before shaking it off and climbing into the bed, boots and helmet still on, and decided to sleep. What should have been comfortable felt stiff and unnatural with his armor on. He rubbed his fingers across the smooth fabric of his pillow, feeling the slickness of it through his gloves. The room felt luxurious and wasteful; the comfort was unnecessary, but it was welcome. Rolling onto his back, Mando threw one arm over his head and draped the other over his chest. He bent his knee into that easy, sleepy angle and drummed a quiet rhythm on his chest plate before closing his eyes and falling asleep. 

Later that night, the crack in the door served its purpose. Standing outside of his door as he had hers, Lily took the glimpse allowed into his room as an invitation to enter. Opening it gently, she padded into the room. The same low light of the hallway that had illuminated her for him bounced off his armor, haloing him warmly and casting a spotlight onto the empty space in the bed next to him. Mando’s arm was flung across the other side of the bed; his other hand up over head. Lily’s brow furrowed at his boots on the bed, but she wasn’t surprised that he went to bed wearing them. Or his helmet. Or his armor. She had wondered if he ever took it off, but it really wasn’t any of her business so she shoved the thought aside and tentatively knelt on the bed. The edge of the mattress dipped as she crawled on her hands and knees, scooting her way up to lay her head on his outstretched arm. 

Feeling her there, Mando immediately tensed, wrapping his arms around her and restraining her against his chest. Lily gasped, but made no attempt to fight. Instead, she brought her hands up and wrapped them around his forearm and said his name softly. The sound of her voice and the smell of her honey chamomile hair made their way through his sleepy mind, and his arms around her relaxed. 

“What do you want?” His voice was scratchy, and he cleared his throat as he spoke. He shifted around her, still holding her against his chest, letting the arm she wasn’t clinging to drape over her stomach.

“Nothing,” she yawned her answer and ran her legs through his, pressing her body against his and twisting their feet together. He grunted an acknowledgement and adjusted his body as she settled against him, desperately clinging to the shred of sleep he was still holding onto even though he knew full well that it was disrupted for the night. 

“What time is it?” she asked, and he groaned again as he did the math. He had only had a few hours of sleep, and he wanted more. She urged him to go back to bed, but she kept moving and fidgeting, keeping him awake. It didn’t take long until she grew frustrated and sat up with a huff. Tucking her knees under her, she reached for the arm she had been lying on and tugged at the shoulder paldron there. Understanding, he reached over and undid it, leaving her his unprotected arm to lie on. Thanking him quietly, she retook her place as the little spoon, facing the wall and re-hooking her feet in his legs. As tired as he was, it didn’t take long before her soft breathing and warmth of her body lulled him back towards sleep. Unfortunately, it also wasn’t long until Lily shifted again, rolling towards him to face him. Jostled back out of sleep, he cracked his eyes and was met with wide eyes staring up into him through the darkness of the room and the tint of his visor.

Her face was sweet, but her hair was a mess, and Mando brushed the always-escaping mess out of her eyes so he could see them clearly. She swallowed tightly, chin tilted up at him, and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. He could see her thoughts churning in her head, and he felt their intensity spill over into the room as a chaotic cacophony rose, centered in the pit of his stomach. This was not the sort of mental helplessness he was used to, and the battery acid feeling in his joints vibrated through his body the longer she stared. It wasn’t for more than a few seconds, but he was caught off guard by it. Mando was so frustratingly lost and confused and indecisive about what to do, that when she sat up again, he just laid there and watched her. Bracing herself on his chest, she rose over his body and draped her knees on either side of his thighs, sitting on his leg guards. 

“Dank farrik.” The curse rushed through his lips as she settled on him. Realizing he was staring at the sweater that hid the spread of her hips across his thighs, Mando dragged his eyes back up her body in an attempt at respectfulness. He did not move fast, but he rolled his gaze up her body; the baggy sweater did nothing but burn the inside of her thighs into his memory. “What are you doing?” he remembered to ask as she took his hands off her thighs and started pulling off his gloves. He hadn’t even been aware that he had put his hands on her, but when she released his naked hands, they went right back to where they had been. When his hands met her soft, warm thighs, he swallowed tightly again, shifting under her. 

Even in the low light, he saw her chest hitch as he moved, and he took it as an invitation to run his hands up her thighs. The breath she sucked in as warm chills ran through her forced his breath stick in his throat. He spread his fingers and ran his hands up and down her again, his thumbs skirting along the inside curve of her thighs. She whispered his name and grabbed his wrists, stopping him. But still, she squirmed on his lap and moved his hands back to the outside of her thighs. Mando forced a calming breath through his pursed lips and held her firmly as she sat atop him. 

Her hands were still on his as he touched her, and she hesitated when she released them and reached for his belt. She looked at him expectantly as his hand shot out and stopped her. She did not back down, continuing to stare at him through the low light, and removed his hand from around her wrist. 

“If I’m going to be poked in the back, I’d prefer it not be with ammo.” Her voice was low and sprung taut, almost threatening as she peeled his fingers off her wrist. She licked her lips nervously as she refocused her attention on the simple belt buckle, unclipping it and pulling it out from between him and the bed as he lifted his hips for her. Continuing her demands, she tugged on his cross body ammo belt, and he sat up enough for her to rid him of that. As he settled back on the pillow, Lily rapped a knuckle onto his chest plate.

“Does this come off?”

“Lift.” His voice was a gritty whisper. Mando didn’t realize he was giving permission with the explanation, but as she leaned in and unhooked his chest plate, he would have given her permission to do almost anything. She moved the panel off the bed with the other pieces she’d taken from him, still tortuously perched atop his thighs with the sweater he now inexplicably and vehemently hated covering too much of her. 

Smiling deviously in the low light, Lily lengthened her body on top of his, stretching out on top of Mando’s torso, pressing herself against him. At the explosion of contact, Mando wrapped his arms around her and rolled her off onto his side, sliding her back into the position where she had been before, along his side. She let out a low sound - a mix of moan and a groan - as Mando rolled on his side against her, putting their bodies side by side. He hushed her while he re-positioned them, holding her cradled in his arm. Just like before, she tangled their legs together, but he did not remember there being so much contact between the back of her and the front of him. He tried to separate them, but Lily refused, pushing back against him again, whining at his attempt to run away. Frustrated, she took his free hand and draped it over her hip, interlocking their fingers. His calloused hands on top of her soft one, he delighted at the softness in the bends of her fingers. Her fingers were smooth and didn’t catch on his as he rubbed the side of his thumbs across them. 

“Lily,” he tested his voice, but her name was about all he could grind out through clenched teeth. His hand moved to her hip, gripping it tightly and keeping her from moving against him again. He swallowed tensely, realizing his hand was on bare skin; the sweater between them had been pushed up between their bodies, hiked up now in the small of her back. It was her turn to hush him; she whispered reassurances and pulled his hand back into hers. One by one, she bombed little kisses on his fingertips then cradled his arm against her chest. Groaning to himself, Mando dropped his helmet softly against the back of her head, bracing himself against her actions. 

“Lily,” he tried her name again, and she stilled in his arms, having settled into her spot as the little spoon. She had wrapped him around her, and he bent with her curves. 

“Wearing shoes in the bed should be a punishable crime.” The complaint was her petty reply, but still she wasn’t happy until her feet and legs were tangled through his. She rubbed her foot against his calf softly in the same cadence as her breath. “Your heart is going too fast,” she whispered, holding her fingers against the pulse beating across his wrist. 

“Not being able to sit still should be a crime,” Mando complained against her ear. He tightened his arm around her and used her self-imposed leg prison to squeeze her lightly. The edge in his voice was part irritation and part exasperation and desperation as she retaliated by rolling her hips back onto him. He cursed her name again, and grabbed her hip tightly. She brushed off the bite of his fingertips and settled again. 

“I need to know about your family,” Mando’s voice was rocky and droned as if he was already half asleep. 

“Right now?” Lily resisted the urge to snuggle back further against him, unwilling to disturb him more, so she bottled up her never-ending need to move and stayed still. He grunted at her to continue, and she sighed. “Not right now,” she refused, unwilling to change the tone of the moment, but it had already changed the mood in her. She chewed the inside of her lip and Mando let out a sleepy attempt at a rebuttal that came out more like the sound of Nerf lowing than comprehensible word. She quieted him and rubbed his arm to comfort him and send him back to sleep. He was out within moments, his deep breaths crackling through the modulator in his helmet. Every now and then, a sigh would rumble against her ear as she waited for him to roll into deeper sleep. 

As she listened to his breath while he slept, the noises grew sharper and more irritating until any sound coming from him scraped like sandpaper against her eardrum. Sighing, she removed herself from his arms, crawling out and slinking awkwardly off the bed. Sliding through his open doorway, she padded down the hallway in just her bare feet and sweater. Lily was grateful that the only person who could see the shame of her retreat was asleep. Closing the door and crawling back into her bed alone, she pulled the covers up to her chin and curled into her sad little ball, and laid awake until her body grew tired enough to fall asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot explain how tickled I am to post Chapter 6 on the 6th. Let's pretend I planned it this way.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which we have a snack

Mando woke up alone and momentarily confused by his askew armor. The bed next to him was cold, but he held onto it as if he could still feel the residual body heart or catch the scent of her hair. He had slept deeply and could only remember her soft curves in bits and pieces. Taking off his helmet and tossing it onto the bed, he scrubbed his hands up and down his face, stubble scratching and rasping against his rough hands. He groaned into his palms and cleared the crust from his eyes then wiped away the sticky drool from the corner of his mouth. Standing up, Mando stretched and groaned, noting his still-open door as he twisted and popped his body. Still, he didn’t hurry while he donned his gloves and reattached his missing armor plates. He wiped out the inside of his helmet quickly with his glove and shoved it onto his head before he left the room. He was quick in the refresher and headed back to the cockpit, glaring at Lily’s closed door each time he walked past it. After several sweeps, in which he made progressively more noise and walked with heavier steps than he had before, he began to take the perceived rejection personally. He checked the time even though the horizon told him what he needed. It was later than he had wanted to get started, and he didn’t feel like waiting any longer for Lily’s company in the cockpit after she had snuck out and closed her door to him last night. Mando stewed on the turn of events as he brought the ship down to the surface of the planet. Lily still hadn’t come up to the cockpit. He’d heard her leave her room; he’d heard the refresher, and he heard her retreat back without saying anything to him. His irritation was split between her perceived rejection and owning the fact that he felt rejected at all. Pushing it away, Mando knocked on her door, pounding harder than intended. He cringed under his helmet. 

“You plan on pounding the door down?” Lily asked as she came out, sounding and looking like she spent the night tossing. She looked like he had just woken her up from a nap; sleep lines were pressed into her cheek and her hair was fuzzy around her face. Her eyes were puffy and rimmed red, but her face was dry, so if she had been crying, she had stopped some time ago.

“Desert planet.” He was just as aggressive as he snapped back at her, choosing to ignore her appearance. Huffing, she turned around and went back into her room. Mando leaned against the door frame, his bulk preventing the door from closing and keeping her closer to him. Confused and irritated at why everything was so tense this morning when it should have been easier, Mando parked himself in place and ignored his thoughts, focusing on Lily. He watched her grab the hem of her sweater and fling it off, presenting her naked back to him. Mando felt like he should avert his eyes, but instead he considered how far his hands would span across her ribs if he touched her. The mental image was pushed away as she pulled a tank top on and turned around to face him. His eyes went straight to her chest, and she folded her arms across her breasts and raised an eyebrow at him. He swallowed thickly and sucked his teeth as her stance pushed her breasts together and up towards him. “More clothes,” he demanded as he crossed his own arms. 

“You told me less clothes,” she argued. 

“I told you we were on a desert planet, and you were not dressed appropriately for the climate.” Mando knew enough to understand that she was angry with him but not enough to know why. He was sure he didn’t want to fight with her so he came into the room, opening drawers and rifling through her clothes. He was surprised she didn’t try to stop him from invading her space, but - truthfully - Mando thought that would have been a little hypocritical of her after she spent last night pushing herself against him. Frustrated, he found something that met his approval and held the clothes out for her. 

“You need to look less _ sweet _ ,” he said, leaning into her face and over-enunciating the final syllable. Glaring at him, she lifted her tank top over her head and got dressed as if she was completely unbothered by the aggressive tension between the two of them. Her power play at nudity paid off, and Mando stood there, hand out as if he was still holding her clothes, unspeaking. Gingerly, she put her hand on his and pushed it down until his arm was at his side. He cleared his throat to find his voice and continued, “Carry any weapons you have. The more visible, the better.” 

Lily cocked her head at him questioningly, but nodded, shooting off rapid-fire questions. “Were those coordinates for Tatooine? Are we on Tatooine? The coordinates sounded familiar. We are on Tatooine, aren’t we?” He watched her profile as she turned back into her room and pulled a box out from under the bed. “Can we stop and get some real food? Just a snack? A little nibble? A wee tiny morsel of food that isn’t congealed chalk?” Mando nodded warily just to get her to shut up and watched her struggle to lift the box onto the bed. She waved off his help and told him to wait outside before closing the door in his face. 

Mando cursed and knocked his head against the door several times in frustration while he waited. “You need to tell me about your family,” he called through the door, hoping that she would at least entertain the conversation if she couldn’t run away from it. He didn’t want to alarm her, but he knew enough to be concerned that she could still be a target. Entire families weren’t slaughtered by pirates for no reason. 

“I think both of us figured out what my family was the minute that Zabrak recognized my face as my mother’s.” Her answer nipped at him, but he refused to take it personally. It felt like he should say something to comfort her or ease her mind, but they would be shallow reassurances because she was right. Wasting words on platitudes wouldn’t change it. There were few reasons that pirates would raid a ship, and most ships this size wouldn’t have been carrying anything of great value. There must have been something else that would have been worth the time, effort, and apparently - their lives. Mando let his thoughts trail off and tuned back into what Lily was saying. She was speaking quickly, voice raised to be heard through the door. 

“I spent all night thinking about it. There were too many signs there was more going on, and I suspected it but I never truly thought that maybe my family was a bunch of dirty smugglers and not just boring traderss. And even if I was, where else would I have gone? I mean, I grew up on this kriffing ship. What was I supposed to do? Run away? “ she threw the door open and shoved her way past him into the hall. “How do you leave your family when they’re all you have?” She looked at him expectantly for answer or confirmation, but he shook his head lightly at her. Mando looked at her. Her face was desperate, and he knew the feeling. He had felt the same desperation after Grogu had left him. It stung. A Mandalorian didn’t leave their family.. 

Lily scoffed and dropped her arms to her side. The sides of her mouth twitched one after another and she rolled her bottom lip in to chew on the inside of it. Again, Mando felt like this was the time he was supposed to jump in and say something and fix it for her. Instead he had panicked at her reaction to the Zabrak and frozen their best source of information in carbonite before running to Tatooine. He should have kept a cool head and taken the time to figure things out. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that they needed to thaw the Zabrak to see how much he knew, so he said nothing. 

Lily’s face fell, obviously let down by his silence. “Fine. I need to get off this ship.” She took off at a clipped pace, weapons she had attached to herself bouncing as she walked. Mando counted them all as she glided down the steps and headed off the ship.She’d brought along everything that Karga had turned over to him in his office that day, blaster and knife strapped to her thighs distracting him. He followed her, and when she noticed, she sped up, glaring at him over her shoulder. As she left the ship, she pulled the sleeves of her thin, gauze sweater over her hands and held them up to shield her eyes from the twin suns as she took a survey of where they were. She took a moment to orient herself as she reached the end of the ramp then took off in an almost-skip as soon as she recognized where she was. 

“Are you going to follow me?” she spun around and walked backwards a few steps, checking over her shoulder as she did. Mando didn’t answer her, but kept following. She slowed just enough for him to almost catch up, then sped up again. She toyed with him as she walked through the docking area and maneuvered around cargo and crews with the confidence of someone who had spent a fair amount of time here before. Every few steps she looked back at him to make sure he was still following, and he obliged. Even though he didn’t speed up, she was always in his sights. He turned a corner after her, and there she was, leaning against the wall, looking very serious. 

“Hey, we are going to get something to eat. I’m not eating another one of those damn things you love so much.” There was no arguing with her resolve or the soft, rounded pout of her bottom lip. She grabbed his hand in hers and pulled him along with her until she was satisfied he was following before she dropped his hand to restart their game of cat and mouse. She walked with purpose and intent, going ahead of Mando as she navigated them towards the market district. Mando didn’t bother to try to talk her out of it or to slow her down. He resigned himself to follow along like a puppy and make sure she kept herself out of trouble. 

As they came upon the market, the streets grew busier, and Lily wove through bodies, leaving him trailing as he made his way behind her. He watched her bun as it wobbled on top of her head, acting like a beacon as she searched the stalls for what she wanted. She ignored merchants who held out bolts of fabric and narrowly avoided stepping on a droid that bolted out in front of her. Mando saw it happening before she did and jogged to her, jerking her backwards out of the way just in time. She tensed against him until she realized it was his arm across her waist, holding her body back against his. Once she recognized him, she slid out of his grip, touching his hand lightly as she spun away back into the crowds. She smiled and disappeared into a building. Sighing, he headed that way, wondering if this was the sort of trouble that Karga had warned him about or if it was only going to get worse. He watched her skirt in and out of buildings and stalls, seemingly more interested in giving chase and keeping Mando on his toes than she was in actually shopping. She never stayed in one spot long, coursing through the streets with the vibrancy of youth’s unbridled energy and the careless disregard for time that came when you had someone else worrying about responsibilities for you. Lily was friendly to everyone, looked like she even knew a few people as she greeted them, but never once did she look over her shoulder at him. She knew he had followed her here and would continue to do so until he got tired of their game. 

It wasn’t until she reached a stand overflowing with striped purple and white jogan fruits that she stopped to pick a few, turning and pointing to him in the crowd. He came forward as she waved him closer. She was holding a couple of fruits in her arms, bartering with the shopkeeper in Huttese. They agreed on a sum, and Lily turned to tell him to pay the woman, but he already was putting the money into her hands. He nodded to the shopkeeper and pulled Lily away, dipping into a quiet spot between buildings, standing against opposite walls, facing each other. 

Lily wasted no time in rubbing the fruit clean on her top and slicing into it with the stolen Alliance knife she’d strapped to her thigh. She cut a thick wedge and moaned sinfully as she bit into the piece, closing her eyes and dropping her head back against the wall. Her lips were shiny and sticky with the sweet juice, and Mando watched her tongue dart out to collect the traces of it from the corners of her mouth before she cut off another chunk. 

“Happy now?” Mando asked as she did a little shuffling dance and hummed happily as she chewed another piece. It was the first time today - in a while - that he had seen her truly happy, and he desperately hoped the mood would stick.

“Until you give me a reason not to be.” She held her finger up to him in a warning not to interrupt, talking with her mouth full. She continued eating until the first jogan fruit was gone. Mando shifted uncomfortably as she licked her fingers, perverting the innocent act in his head as the feel of her against him last night flooded his head. It took a moment for her voice to break through the memory as she called his name and cleaned the second fruit. She cut a slice and held it out to him, but he shook his head at it at the same time his stomach growled. She kicked off the wall and stood in front of him, pushing the slice of fruit at him again, sure he wanted it.

“I promise you will like it.” Lily tried to convince him to take a bite, drawing closer and flying the fruit chunk through the air as if she were feeding a child. She smiled widely, enjoying teasing him; her mood had lightened and shifted into this playful cheerfulness. He watched her, amused, until she was close enough to lean against him, hand on his chest, piece of fruit waving through the air. Without a word, Mando’s hand circled around her wrist and brought her hand up to his head. He lifted his helmet up enough to reveal his lips and bit into the fruit, sucking it into his mouth. He let his helmet drop down and lowered her hand to her side, releasing it to hang slack. 

Lily was quiet. He looked at her, and her face was wide eyed and open mouthed. She swallowed, licking her lips, still draped against him as he leaned against the wall. She was looking up at the bottom of his helmet, hand raising back up as if to touch his face. He caught her wrist again as it rose, stopping her. 

“More,” he ordered, and a muddle-brained Lily obediently cut him another slice. Again, he held her hand, using her to feed him, nipping at her fingers as she tried to run her fingers across his jaw. She snatched her hand back to her check, eyeing him warily. This time she cut him another piece without being told, only looking away to cut safely. She was transfixed by the thin slice of skin visible when he lifted the helmet and the scratchy stubble there. He ate without talking; the only sounds coming from them were the knife slicing, his mouth crunching, and her heavy breathing. When he was done, he plucked the core from her hand and tossed it down the alley away from them, as she sheathed her knife. She leaned on him still, legs between his, still staring at the bottom edge of his helmet, hands curled around the top edge of his chestplate. 

“I forgot you had a face,” was all she said. Her voice was quiet, stuck in her throat. She swallowed thickly, stepping away from him and pacing in a slow circle. She was lost in her thoughts, brushing her chin lightly with her fingers as if she was touching hers in an effort to keep from touching his. 

“I do too.” He agreed with her, reaching down to rearrange the pressure in his pants from where she had been leaning against him. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to lift his helmet other than his desire to keep her smiling, and seeing her reaction almost had him regret it. But she was as sweet as that fruit was, and he wanted to taste it on her lips and tongue. 

She watched him intently, and Mando could see the gears turning in her head, fingers still rubbing languidly across her lips and chin as she thought. Her staring made him feel nervous and regretful, and he tried to rationalize the lifting of his helmet in the same way that he had tried to excuse his reckless decision to come to Tatooine. But watching her finger her lips, he got distracted remembering the night prior. She watched him drift off in his own head, even behind the mask she could tell. She’d spent enough time watching him to know when he was watching her and when he was thinking. This was the latter. Her head tilted to the side, her hair flopping along with it, and she opened her mouth to speak, hesitating like she was apt to when she was afraid he wouldn’t like what she was about to say. 

“I think I like the helmet better,” she paused. “It’s easier.” She waived her hand around her head, mimicking the shape of his helmet, eyes staying on his with her brows drawn together. Mando snapped back to present and grunted in agreement even though he found none of this back and forth easy at all. Moment shattered, he moved on and smothered the glint of rejection she sparked with her remark. Touching her elbow, he guided her out from between the buildings and back into the hubbub of the market street. This time, his hand slid from her elbow and sought her hand out. She held his gloved hand, wrapping her thumb and pointer around his thumb and interlacing the rest of their fingers. She thanked him quietly for the snack, sighing contentedly and resting her head on his arm as they walked. 

“Do you want a helmet?” he asked as he led them away from the market and into the city proper. Mando’s mind was stuck on the scene with the fruit and how he’d lifted his helmet after telling her it didn’t come off when he first met her. She considered his question and shook her head, refusing.

“Where would my hair go?” The simple question surprised a chuckle out of him, and he squeezed her small hand in his. The levity of her answer soothed him, and they settled into comfortable, carefree conversation, joined hands swinging as they walked. They debated the merits of different hair styles she could wear - even discussed the possibility of leaving a hole in the top of her helmet for the bun to poke through - which he rejected immediately because it would make for a structurally unsound helmet. In the end, they agreed that Lily was best served helmetless and staying out of trouble, with Mando promising to save her if she ever found herself a damsel in distress. 

As the conversation pittered out, he led them in comfortable silence at a leisurely pace until a group of round buildings, nondescript in form and color, with a short tower between them came into view. The crowds of people and aliens that had been around them in the city had dissipated, and they were mostly alone as they drew closer to their destination. Lily spotted the droid sitting at the entrance to the building and realized where they were. Eyes wide, she tugged on Mando’s arm, looking at him expectantly. He turned to face her, dropping her hand and putting his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm's length.

“Lily, when we go in there, you need to be quiet.” His voice was serious, and she nodded. She stared at the ammo belt across his chest instead of his face and reached out for it, resting her hand on it. Mando took his hands from her shoulders and removed her hands from his body. “You need to keep your hands to yourself.” 

Her eyes shot up to his, and her face darkened as she sussed out what he was actually saying. Insulted, she crossed her arms over her chest and motioned to him to lead the way, following behind him as he started walking again. Focusing on feeling rejected rather than nervous, Lily consoled herself by kicking rocks at his feet as she followed behind. 

“Try not to be so small. Walk beside me. Keep your chin up.” He gave more advice that just came out like orders, and Lily sped up to stay in line with him, feeling less sure of herself with each new instruction. “Don’t touch your weapons, and remember danger name rules, ok?” 

Lily stopped, overwhelmed and refusing to take another step. Mando sighed, backtracking to her. Her eyes were round with apprehension, and she nervously chewed on the sleeve of her sweater pulled over her thumbs. He pushed her hand out of her mouth, and it fell against her leg with a limp thud. He made the decision not to be irritated with her; he recognized the signs of her shut down and resolved to not let that happen. He needed her with him for this. 

“What’s wrong?” Behind him, he heard the door open and a group of people exited the buildings, rowdy and drunk. The group stumbled past them, and someone shoved against Lily, forcing her forward against Mando’s chest. His arms immediately went out to steady her, and he bit back the urge to punish the man for his clumsiness. Focusing on Lily instead, he brushed the loose hairs off her forehead and lifted her chin to force her to look at him. 

“Why did you bring me here?” she asked quietly, pathetically. Mando sighed, unwilling to have this conversation here, of all places. 

“Protection,” was his succinct answer. He nodded to her, and she mimicked him. He gave her a second before letting her go and made sure she had her wits back about her before he led them forward, towards the doors into the palace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Toledo, Batman, this chapter kicked my butt, and I expect the next couple will as well. Be patient with my poor heart and head! I started a new, amazing job (yay!) but the schedule is taking some getting used to (boo!), but we shall endure! Thank you all for your nice comments and support. I luff ya.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we enter the Palace!
> 
> Special thanks to escape2020 for being a wonderful beta <3333

Mando looked around the area and noted all of the changes that had been made over the last few years. It wasn’t just the landscape that had shifted but the overall  _ feel _ and  _ purpose  _ of the land that had changed as well. Where the Palace had once sat alone, high in the desert, kilometers from anywhere that could be considered a town, it had grown into a sprawling mix of homes and businesses (of varying degrees of legitimacy). The changes served the area well. Each time Mando found himself on Tatooine, he found himself drawn here instead of Mos Eisley. Granted, he was brought to the planet on business and seldom went anywhere for pleasure, but enjoying a little hospitality at the Palace was far more enjoyable than tracking down bounties in the middle of the desert. Usually, he was able to avoid going inside and stuck to the market and docking areas that had been established not too far off from the Palace’s massive gates. But here with Lily, they would be venturing inside. 

Calling her to stay with him, Mando felt her sticking to his shadow as they walked towards the massive gate that stood between the Palace and the desert landscape surrounding it. However, where it once stayed closed, doors had been chiseled out of the heavy material so people could enter and exit without the theatrics of the gate lifting and lowering for each creature that begged an audience with the great Jabba the Hutt or his already overthrown regent, Bib Fortuna. Regardless of who sat on the throne, the green, grunting Gamorean guards still bumbled around the entryway. Mando more or less disregarded them as they paced the wide hall. He focused on sidestepping the droid that extended from the ceiling to examine them as her and Lily entered the door.

Mando smirked to himself as he heard Lily curse under her breath as the droid zeroed in on her and came closer to her face. He held his teasing laughter in as she ducked out of the way, scurrying to Mando’s left side and using his profile as a shield. The halls that had been kept dark during Jabba’s rule were now lit brightly enough that they could see around them clearly. Lily stepped closer into his shadow, nearly touching him, and he could feel her anxiety as she tried her best to keep her hands to herself as he’d instructed her. 

“They’re looking at me, kid. It’s the armor.” His voice came heavy through the modulator even though he tried to keep the tone light to reassure her. He was used to this reaction wherever he went, but she clearly wasn’t. Whatever time she had spent on Tatooine had blessedly been limited to the less seedy parts of the planet, even though he noted her familiarity with the landing zone and market areas around the Palace. Still, while these areas were common, they were more often used as a guise for the illegitimate, and that only reinforced the idea in his head that her family had not been simple traders, but had been dabbling in other occupations. Deep in thought, Mando felt a pinch on his forearm, and snapped his eyes down to Lily.

“Don’t call me kid,” she whispered harshly. Her eyes were narrowed, but her pupils were wide. Her bravado was manufactured, but it was helping her keep her hands mostly to herself and her back straight, so he let it go. The further they went down the hall, the louder it became, and the more people they came across. Ahead of them, a Rhodian leaned against the wall with a half undressed, gelatinous alien draped over him engaging in a biologically questionable exchange. Mando heard Lily swallow hard and felt her hand grip onto the edge of his cape. One more new sight, and he half expected her to crawl underneath it and jump onto his back like one of the  Kowakian monkey-lizards that Jabba had loved so much. 

Sighing, Mando pulled her hand up and took his cloak out of her grip, setting her arm at her own side instead of his. Still, she trailed behind closely like a nervous puppy as they descended the short staircase into the main chamber where Jabba and Bib Fortuna had held court over their crime syndicate. Mando ducked, avoiding the wind chime hanging in the corner of the door frame, but spun on his heels to glare at Lily as the chimes announced her presence. Caught in the act with her hand in the air strumming the chimes, she smiled sheepishly and held her hands out in apology. Appeased, he turned back around to see how many eyes had been drawn to them thanks to her complete lack of impulse control, but the tug of her latching onto his cloak again distracted him. In the seconds between his reprimand and turning back around to face forward, Lily had lost her cocky, playful nature and was now doing her best to avoid visibly cowering behind him. The change in her hit him like a wave of guilty nausea, but they were here. They might as well get on with it. 

  
  


The main chamber was noisier and not as well lit as the hallway and certainly not as bright as the planet surface, and the mix of sounds and the darkness were overwhelming to Lily. He heard the shift in her breathing and recognized her struggling to process; her breaths were quicker and hitching. Stopping again, Mando again took her hand from his cloak, cutting off her apology and shushing her as he took her hand in his. He lifted his thumb, and she wrapped her forefinger and thumb around it as she had before, forcing out a heavy exhale as he squeezed her hand lightly. Mando waited for her signal before continuing further into the room. Lily stayed tucked beside Mando as he made his way through the room, watching as people moved out of his way, quieting as they walked by. She felt stares turning from appraising him in his Beskar to focusing on her, sweetly behind, tucked close enough to step on the back of his boots. He made his way to the front of the room, and she peeked her head out from where she trailed behind him. They were standing in front of a raised dais on which sat a simple throne, occupied by another large man in Mandalorian armor, painted olive and maroon. Off to his side was a woman all in black giving orders to someone, not noticing them until the man in charge gave a deep belly laugh that silenced the room. The laughter pulled everyone’s attention, tensed Mando, and startled Lily into dropping Mando’s hand and fully hiding behind him. The other Mandalorian called the woman in black over, and she rolled her eyes at Mando.

“Really, Mando? Another one?” The woman in black chucked, and Mando sighed dejectedly.

Lily took his heavy sigh and hanging head as her cue to come out from behind him and stand at his side. Lily waved and said “hello” quietly, her small voice lost before it made its way to the dais. 

“Who is this supposed to be? Welcome to my humble hovel, brother.” The Mandalorian in colored armour pulled himself out of his lazy sprawl on the throne and hopped down off the platform, coming to them and grabbing Mando’s forearm in welcome. Mando greeted him back, nodding his acknowledgement to the woman in black who returned his greeting by crossing her arms and perching herself on one of the arms of the throne. The tension between Mando and the woman made Lily swallow tightly, but she thought better of her instincts than to latch onto Mando again and settled herself by playing with the hem of her sweater. 

“Oh, she’s much cuter than the little green guy,” Lily heard the new man say as she pulled her attention back to what was being said in front of her. Mando stood taller than him, but his stance spoke of his respect for the other man. The stranger was broader than Mando, and she liked his armor colors, and Mando’s familiarity with him took the edge off her nerves. “What’s your name, Princess?” He stepped back to look at her and took her hand in greeting, bowing slightly. Lily opened her mouth to answer, but caught herself. Her eyes went to Mando for permission, and she waited until he nodded to tell him. The stranger chuckled at this, still holding Lily’s hand. She gave him her name and stood there unsure of how to proceed.

“Am I supposed to bow?” she whispered to Mando out of the side of her mouth, knowing full well that the other man could hear her. 

“No, you don’t bow,” Mando said flatly, reaching between them and taking Lily’s hand out of his friend’s and holding it himself. He rubbed his thumb across her fingers until she latched onto his thumb. The other man seemed amused by this, but Lily wasn’t sure. While she could read Mando’s expressions and face through his helmet, she couldn’t say for certain about the other man. They stood together with Lily not understanding the silent conversation they were having, but knowing that Mando had just broken his own rule that he had set for her. 

“Is there a reason you’re all standing there? Are you done?” Lily cracked a smile and tried to hide it. The woman in black introduced herself to Lily as Fennec as she joined them, nodding her “hello” at Mando. She raised her eyebrows at Mando and Lily’s joined hands before raising her own hand to guide them to a quieter part of the room where they could all speak without making a spectacle of themselves as they were now. They moved to a table, and as they sat, someone was there with a tray of drinks. As soon as Mando’s was put in front of him, Lily took it for herself. At the same time, Mando moved her drink out of her reach, but before he could retrieve his stolen cup from her, she already had her lips on it and was drinking deeply. Across from them, the stranger took off his helmet to sip his own drink, smiling into his cup. Knowing better than to put her cup down or else it would be taken from her, Lily held it in her hands, elbows on the table, leg folded underneath her. Mando’s thigh was pressed against her on the bench seat and his hand under the table was on her thigh posessively. 

“Who are you?” Lily asked as she took another sip, and her boldness was rewarded by amused smiles from both people across from her. They introduced themselves, and Lily’s cup clanked heavily onto the table as she set it down and turned to glare at Mando. 

“ _ That’s  _ Boba Fett?” Mando nodded at her. She scoffed and turned back to her drink in time to rescue it from her keeper’s hands. “I told you I should have bowed.” 

“Princess, you are a welcome guest at any time,” Boba winked at Lily, and she felt her face warm while Mando’s hand squeezed her thigh in warning and Fennec rolled her eyes. 

“We have business.” Clearly unamused by the interaction, Mando brought the conversation back around to where he felt it should have been. 

“When we were little, Dad used to threaten to throw my sister and me into the sarlack pit, but we always said that we would escape just like you did.” Lily was doing wonders for the old man’s ego as she leaned in and continued talking. “Was it the jet pack? Is that how you escaped? Burn your way through and - BAM -” She slammed her hand down onto the table energetically, catching her glass as it wobbled and moving it out of Mando’s reach again. “Punch right through to the sky! Is that it?” Her eyes were wide, and she was waiting for her answer, hands wrapped around her cup. 

“I’ll never tell, Princess, but if I did, you’d be the first to know - as long as you don’t tell him.” Boba jerked his thumb at Mando, basking in Lily’s attention and Mando’s frustration. Lily smiled widely and crossed her heart, feigning seriousness. 

“Your parents are dead.” Mando killed the conversation for them, done with small talk. Fennec and Boba glared at him from across the table. Beside Mando, Lily’s smile fell; she took a long drink from her glass, finishing it and slamming it onto the table before turning and pushing against his arm, demanding he move out of her way so she could leave the table. When he refused, she simply stood up on the bench seat and apologized to her hosts as she stepped onto the table and jumped off, cursing colorfully at Mando. The men watched her storm off towards the bar on the other side of the room, and they looked at Fennec expectentantly. 

“Why should I do it? He’s the one that ruined it.” She had a fair point, but still, the trio watched Lily order another drink and pointed over to Boba, who gave his okay with a nod of his head. Smiling at him, she blew the man a kiss before turning towards Mando and glaring at him while she drank. As she stood drinking, someone came up behind her and started talking in her ear, and she turned around with a smile on her face, ready to flirt her way into aggravating her guardian. It worked like a charm, and Boba chuckled as he watched Mando’s hands fist on the table. Fennec sighed and reluctantly went to go save Lily from herself before she started a brawl. The two men watched as Fennec guided the younger woman away from the bar, ditching her drink, and moving towards the covered pit in the center of the room. Even from across the room, they could hear Lily’s delighted shriek of joy when she realized a rancor was under her feet. 

“Was that really necessary? We were having such a good time,” Boba chastised his friend drolly, finishing his drink and taking the one that Mando had stolen from his ward. Mando was silent and watched him drink. 

“I need your help,” was all he said in reply. 

“You usually do.” The two men leaned back into the corners of the booth, watching their women interact. Lily was happy and bright, and even Fennec looked like she was reluctantly enjoying herself as she ordered the guards to bring more meat to feed the rancor. 

“Her family was killed by pirates. I think there’s more to it. I need to keep her safe.” Mando spoke simply, eyes on Lily instead of his conversation mate.

“I haven’t heard anything. Are you asking me to find out?” Boba’s glass clunked as he set it down. He moaned as he stretched out in the booth, bringing his foot up on the bench and draping his arm over his bent knee. 

“We found a Zabrak. He saw her when I was bringing him in. Went off about how she looked just like her mother and freaked her out.” When Boba didn’t respond, Mando tore his eyes away from Lily and looked at him. Boba’s left brow was raised, and Mando knew that his next question was what Mando had done with the information. “I, um,” he looked away, “I froze him to stop him from talking. And then we were already on our way here.” Boba didn’t respond, but watched him, smirk tickling at the edge of his mouth as he swirled his cup. 

“Interesting.” Boba sat upright and put his feet flat on the ground. Mando swallowed tensely as Boba leaned in across the table. “You’re telling me you panicked over that little girl and came to me to save you instead of just unfreezing him and doing it yourself?” When Mando agreed with a silent nod, Boba chuckled. He had no idea that today would be so amusing, but it was a more than welcome distraction from his everyday occupations. “Well, my friend, you fucked up and now you’re going to need to fix it. That girl can have my protection, but that means from you as well. Handle your shit.” With the hint of a threat, Boba left the table, tossing his helmet back on and joining the women at the rancor pit. He wrapped his arm lightly around Fennec’s hip, and she leaned into him, touching his hand briefly before Boba said something to cause animated delight to spill from Lily. Her eyes went wide as she clapped her hands together then threw her arms open to pull them both into an awkward hug. Where Boba looked amused, Fennec looked off put by the contact, but tolerated it well. Boba raised his hand, pointing to one of the staircases to the side of the room, and Lily took off down it. As she disappeared down the stairs, he whistled sharply at Mando and jerked his head for him to follow her. Sighing and wishing he had enjoyed a drink instead of allowing Lily to take it, he slid out of the booth and followed her. 

By the time that Mando had caught up with her, he had followed her wobbling bun and screeching sounds of excitement to a row of stalls that lined either side of the tunnel. The tunnel had opened up into a wide passage and light shone in from an open gate wide enough for people to ride through on the backs of their domesticated beasts. The whole place smelled like Bantha fodder, and it was no surprise why when he heard one lowing. Another stuck its head over its gated stall and called back to the other. Soon, the room was echoing with the calls of the animals bouncing around the echoing tunnel. Even through his helmet, Mando could smell the beasts, and it was a disgusting mix of flatulence, feces and musky hair on a hot day. Still, he kept going until he found Lily, sitting on the ground inside of a stall, cradling the head of a baby bantha while it’s Twileki handler knelt down and instructed her how to bottle feed it. Neither of them paid him much mind as he leaned over the stall door, watching Lily feed the smallish animal. 

Seeing her settled, the Twileki left her to her task of feeding the baby bantha and held the door open for Mando to sneak in behind them. Moving slowly and quietly, he settled down next to her on the ground, back against the stall wall and watched her happily gush over the baby as it pushed against her to get at the bottle. They sat in silence with only Lily’s comforting sounds and the bantha’s churtles between them until the baby was finished and started butting his head against her to play. Caught in the moment, Mando reached out and lazily stroked its head, but that only caused him to become the object of the bantha’s attention, and it playfully charged against his chest, headbutting against the armor with a clang. Mando pulled it’s head gently by the horns and cooed at it before lecturing it to find a better playmate before letting it go. Immediately, it did the same thing, sending Lily into a quiet fit of amused laughter. 

“You know she’s all alone. Orphan.” Lily was talking about the animal, but her tone implied she was talking about herself. “You should be nice to orphans and not remind them that they have nothing and no one. Take care of them, ya know?” she didn’t look at him while she ruffled the long, curly locks of the beast. “You shouldn’t be assholes to vulnerable people, Mando. It makes you an asshole.” Her tone turned harsh, but her face stayed soft as she continued petting the baby. It settled down in her lap, draping itself over their outstretched legs. They struggled to pull their legs out from underneath the sleepy bantha, and it huffed and grunted in protest and rearranged itself to put its head in her lap. 

Mando didn’t know what to do with his hands while being chastised so he scratched the bantha’s head and apologized quietly. 

“Ok, so can we keep her?” Lily beamed an award-winning smile at him, and he scoffed as he stood up, brushing off the hay and bantha hair from his body. She didn’t skip a beat when he refused, and took his hand to help her stand. As he hefted her up, he pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her. Looking around quickly and only seeing the snoring baby bantha as their company, he considered lifting her chin and his helmet to give her a soft kiss, but the lowing of an animal in the stall next to them startled him, and he jumped away from her. Sheepishly, she sloughed off the hay and hair clinging to her and led them out of the enclosure, stopping to put the empty bottle on top of the stall door out of the reach of the sleeping baby. 

They headed upstairs back into reality, and the true gravitas of his responsibility for Lily and the potential threat that she may be facing simultaneously turned his stomach and lit a fire in it. As Lily took the lead, bounding up the stairs, bun bouncing with her jaunty steps, Mando’s resolve to protect her deepend. He hadn’t realized he had been lagging behind until she looked over her shoulder and teased him for his slowness. As they came to the top of the stairs, Mando grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side, shoving her into a small hidden alcove tucked out of view of the main floor. Lily gasped as her back hit the wall, and Mando pressed against her front, rocking himself against her as he hid them from the eyes around them. Mando hushed her and ran his hand up her side, skirting along her torso and raising his hand to her ear. He brushed the hair away from her face and brought his face in closer.. 

“You aren’t alone.  _ I  _ will take care of you.” The deep rumble of his voice through the modulator sent Lily, and her head fell back against the wall. Her neck was open and vulnerable, and he slid his hand from her cheek down to her throat, holding her without force, resting his hand on the curved line, stroking it with his thumb. “Will you behave and let me protect you?” Her head bobbed up and down quickly, and he moved his hand back up to her cheek. She nuzzled her face into his gloved palm, lips parted and eyes dilated. His thumb brushed against her open mouth, and he was again tempted to taste her lips. He pushed the urge back along with the desire to take her up against the wall, and simply pulled away, exhaling deeply. She paused, slumped against the wall, surprised more by the speed at which he had stepped back than anything else. 

“Well then,” Lily kicked off the wall, fixing her hair and walking towards him. “Let’s say our goodbyes so we can go home and you can take care of me.” With a playful glint in her eyes, she spun away from him, dancing her way back into the main part of the room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A ginormous thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting and encouraging through this story. You shall be rewarded handsomely next chapter. Oh yeah, baby. We gonna start cookin' with gas!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we spend the night.

By the time Mando and Lily returned to the ship, it was either very late or very early depending on who you asked. They had been offered accommodations for the night, but Lily declined, stating she had but one bed in this world, and she refused to leave it empty for the night when it was just a short walk away. So after forcing promises from Boba Fett and Fennec that they would not feed  _ her _ baby bantha to the rancor, Lily and Boba exchanged curtsies and bows while the others rolled their eyes at them. Lily had clearly charmed her way into the kingpin’s good graces, and Fennec even spared her a smile. Mando was not so lucky. Before leaving, Boba pulled him aside with a look that could not be argued with. Lily couldn’t make out what was being said, but the less than brotherly smack on the back and tight smile on Boba’s face before he walked away made it clear that whatever had been said had been meant aggressively. Mando hung back a moment, hands on his hips, staring at the wall for a moment before returning to Lily. He opened his hand in expectation of hers and was not disappointed when she took it and wrapped her fingers around his thumb with a smile as she always did. 

The walk back to the ship was lazier and more meandering than Mando normally would have taken, but Lily was happily spouting off her favorite parts of the day. She talked with her hands while still holding his, and he let her puppeteer his hand into the air as she spoke. He smiled to himself as she yawned widely, tiring almost immediately like a puppy who had had too much fun and had reached its limit. She sighed contentedly and tucked herself against his side, leaning her head against his arm. The rest of the walk was quiet and uneventful. 

The temperature had cooled as the twin suns set. The dryness of the desert was refreshing at night - a welcome change from the sweltering suns during the day. It was quiet and calm, and a light wind swirled little clouds of sandy dirt as they walked. But Mando’s mind was still on the one-sided conversation he’d been on the receiving end of with Boba, and their arrival at the ship didn’t register. Lily was holding up his forearm, looking at the buttons on his gauntlet inquisitively. He took a moment to point out the different buttons and their tasks, warning her which ones to stay away from unless of an emergency. She listened solemnly, nodding along when appropriate, pressing only the button to open the ship and drop the ramp so they could finally be home. 

While Lily bounded upstairs to lay claim to the refresher before he could, Mando hung back in the cargo hold, eyeing the carbonite chamber and the plate that contained the frozen Zabrack. The machine had taken almost all of his initial funds, and it had been more difficult to procure than it should have been, but scarcity was a result of war that he was familiar with. Still, he had paid a lot to get the chamber delivered quickly - probably too much. It had paid for itself with just the first few trips he had taken out of Nevarro after its installation, but since Karga had forced him to take Lily along, the chamber didn’t seem worth its weight in carbonite. It had brought nothing but trouble. 

Mando’s thoughts were scattered as he heard the water pumps shut off overheard, signaling Lily was done with her shower. He hadn’t realized he’d been standing and staring as long as he had. Attention shot, Mando chuckled to himself when he turned to go upstairs and the three tall water cisterns tucked under the stairs caught his eye. He had thought them unnecessarily large and frivolous at first, but now knowing Lily - it was no surprise her father had the extra water storage added. He was ready to take advantage of it himself, and he blessed the genius of the man as he stood under the steaming spray and scrubbed the sand out of his hair. Mando was no longer surprised when sand and dirt found its way under his helmet; he was just glad to be able to wash himself clean whenever he wanted. 

Showered and dressed in clean clothes, he took the time to scrape some of the crud off his armor with a fingernail before giving up and donning his beskar suit. It was going to be a long night, and he might as well save something for him to do in the middle of it when he inevitably woke up after only sleeping a few hours. Until the urge to sleep hit him, he might as well double check the ship was secure and run inventory on what was needed before they left in the morning. 

“Mando?” 

He heard her little voice calling him as he passed her open door, retreating a few steps until he was standing in the door frame. His body was blocking the light from the corridor and casting a shadow into the dark room, but he could still clearly see Lily lying in her bed, covers tucked up to her chin. She yawned loudly, slipping her arm out of the covers and making a grabbing motion with her hand towards him. She wanted him to come to her. Mando swallowed, spit sticking in his throat as he remembered how he felt with her sitting on his lap or settling across his thighs or pressed against him in the alcove. Unsure of what to do, he took the safe choice and sat across the room from her on the other bed, facing her. He was sure he looked as uncomfortable as he felt. His feet were flat on the floor, back straight, hands set on his knees because he didn’t know where else to put them. 

Lily smiled, turning towards him and propping herself up on her elbow. “Come here,” she beckoned, using her free hand to pat the bed next to her. “You’re too far away.” Her smile was sweet, but mischievous, and Mando felt ill at ease with the request for a moment before realizing that the twisting in his stomach was a sign that he wanted to move closer to her. So he did. 

As Mando perched himself on the edge of her mattress, Lily tucked her legs under her and scooted up towards the head of the bed. Mando moved into the empty space she vacated, still sitting stick straight, knees bent at ninety degrees, hands flat on them. He chanced a glance over his shoulder at her, but she was still smiling at him, head tilted to the side. Caught looking, his head snapped back straight, and he purposefully avoided putting her in his line of vision - a true feat with the tech in his helmet. He felt the bed move next to him, but he still refused to turn and see what she was doing. Swallowing tightly instead, he focused on the sound his breath made through the modulator in the helmet. It was loud and bounced around inside the beskar, drowning out the pounding of his pulse that exploded when Lily placed her hand on his shoulder. 

“Take them off.” 

Mando startled at her touch, and his head whipped around to face her. Sensing his confusion, she leaned against his shoulder and pointed at his boots. “Take them off. No one wears boots in bed. It’s  _ wrong _ .” He followed the line of her finger down, and wiggled his toes in his boots. “Yes, those. Off.” 

When he didn’t listen to her urging, Lily swung her legs out of bed and dropped to her knees in front of him. There wasn’t much room between the two beds, and she filled the space. The dim light from the hall shone across her eyes and highlighted the naked skin of her thighs, and Mando suddenly felt shamefully overdressed with her in just her soft sweater and underwear. 

He realized he was staring at the uncovered skin and hadn’t responded to what she had said. He apologized and forced his eyes away from her legs, up her body and refocused on her face. 

Her head was tilted and her bottom lip was being held hostage in her mouth as she worried it. She reached for his boots, but stopped suddenly before she touched him. Her hands were frozen in mid-air as she asked for his permission before moving again. The subtle nod of his head was the only response that Mando could manage, and she copied the motion as she wrapped one hand around the back of his heel and tugged his boot off. Lily toppled backwards, falling off her knees and landing on her hip with a victorious smile as she removed one boot and then the other. 

Without his boots on, the leather pieces of his leg armor sagged down his calf, the weight of the knives and bullets dragging them down. She took them all, telling him that he didn’t need weapons in bed. Like he had before, Mando could only nod because now the tingling that her touch had left on the back of his legs had rolled its way through his body and was now crawling up the back of his neck. The sensation was too distracting and consuming to be overpowered so he closed his eyes against it and let another wave crash through him while she removed his socks. Mando sucked in air sharply through his nose when he opened his eyes and saw that Lily had stood, claiming the space between his knees. His face was at her stomach, and Mando fought the urge to wrap his arms around her lower back, uncover his face and bury it in the fabric of her sweater. 

Lily put her hands on the sides of his helmet, but instead of pulling it up and off as he feared she would, she tilted his head back. Her hands fit into the sharp cut-outs of the helmet, and she held her hands there as if she was holding his face in her hands and not cold metal. The side of her mouth tugged up, and she brushed her thumbs along the edge of his manufactured cheek bones lovingly before dropping a kiss onto the top of his helmet. The sweetness of the act burned through the beskar, and Mando felt it sear in his body as devastatingly as if she had removed his helmet and kissed his bare brow. The chaste kiss had been the first in as long as he could remember, and with that realization, he did reach his arms around her and put his head against her stomach. Her reaction was sweet, and Lily let him rest there for a moment and ran her fingers along the scaled inlay on the back of his helmet.

She gave him the time he needed before gently unwrapping his arms from around her and continuing to undress him. Lily removed his gloves, then his chest belt, and lastly the ammo belt at his waist. Mando’s mouth grew drier with each article she took; he didn’t bother to refute her teasing claims about how he wore too many clothes when she was standing in front of him in almost nothing. Still, when she told him to scoot backwards on the bed, he did. When she told him to take off his vambraces, he did. When she deftly removed his chest plate and carelessly tossed it across to land on the other bed - well, he didn’t fight that either. 

“You wear too much, Mando,” she said as she leaned back to admire her handiwork. He felt naked, and his feet were cold. As if she knew, she returned to her spot between his knees, the outside of her feet against the inside of his. The contact warmed them, and he slid his hands up and down the shape of her thighs. “How did I manage to take all that off, and I still can’t touch you?” Her mouth turned into a pouted frown, and she set her hands on his shoulders where the armor remained. 

Mando’s hand left the outside of her thigh, reaching up to stroke her cheek. Lily nuzzled her face into his palm and nipped at it playfully before pushing it away. Mando’s hand fell onto the bed with a thud. In the dim light of the room, he could see the wetness her tongue left as it travelled back and forth across her lower lip before she captured it between her teeth. Her eyes had gone dark and her lashes seemed heavy as she blinked slowly. Her breath picked up, and her fingers twitched at her sides. Mando swallowed thickly as she went back to rubbing her lips with her tongue. He was torn between watching her mouth and her hands. However, while he was distracted by her mouth, her hands had lifted her sweater over her head, and it joined his chest plate across the room. 

“Dank Farrick.”

Lily stood undressed in front of him, tightly wedged between his legs, with her breasts on full display for him. Mando had no idea how she was controlling her breathing or why her chest wasn’t heaving like his was, but he leaned back against the wall on his elbows to put more room between them. Lily took this as an invitation to crawl onto his lap and press herself against him. He cursed her name as she demanded he lie down, and he cursed it again as he gave into her demands. She punished him by settling herself across the tightness in his pants and leaning in to press her brow against his helmet. As her chest pressed against his, his hands immediately went to her back, palms flat as they ran up and down her spine. 

Her skin was warm - the warmest skin he had ever felt. Even though he could never remember touching anyone else like this before, he was sure that even if he had, it wouldn’t have felt like this. She was so soft and distractingly smooth. The softest and the warmest woman he’d ever touched. Every other time had been without this kind of disorienting touch. Mando’s mind briefly went back to the other times he’d touched another human being sexually. It had always been a matter of biology and mechanics. He had experienced  _ touch _ , but there’d only been the touching of the required parts. Nothing like this. 

As she kept moving her hips, he felt that she was so warm  _ there _ , too. Feeling brave, he drew his hands down her back and squeezed her ass. She whimpered but didn’t stop rocking her hips against his, so he did it again and just kept touching her. He touched her back, her sides, and her hips. 

“Take it down for me. Let me see.” He begged her to take out that ridiculous bun, and her hair fell around them like a curtain. He hadn’t known it was that long, but he buried his hands in it nonetheless. He pulled her face down to his, but had no idea what to do with his helmet in the way. Lily saved him by resting her forehead on his and reaching her hand between them. She traced the outline of his cock in his pants and squeezed. 

His name fell from her lips. His real name. His  _ danger name. _ Because now, this was dangerous. Touching her like this was dangerous. Wanting to taste her was dangerous. Wanting to exchange his helmet for the chance to know how her pulse felt on his tongue as he sucked her neck was dangerous. He wanted to taste every part - starting with her tongue - and that was  _ dangerous _ . Din grabbed her wrist and pulled her hands out of his lap, but couldn’t manage to stop himself from bucking against where her hand had been. 

“It’s too much.” He released her wrist and touched her cheek, hoping she’d understand and take pity on him. She didn’t answer with words. Instead, her tongue snuck out and she captured his thumb in her mouth and sucked, wrapping her tongue around the digit. She slowed her grind against him and gave the same attention to his pointer finger. Lily repeated the action on his other hand while Din’s breath seethed under his helmet. When Lily took his hands with their now wet fingers and placed them on her breasts, he ground his teeth together with enough force that his jaw ached. A growl ripped from him as he rolled her breasts in his hands, hers still atop his. She was so warm. So soft. So loud when she threw her head back and moaned when she closed his fingers around her nipples, rolling them and pulling them gently. She urged him to continue and arched her back against his touch, forcing herself further into his grasp. Din massaged her breasts in his hands, teasing her until he needed to grab her hips to still her. She rocked her pussy against him again, and the throbbing in his cock pulled a drop of precum out onto his thigh.

“Please?” she whispered as she dropped her hands to his fly. She moved the leather armor padding out of the way and started unbuckling his belt. Again, Din grabbed her hands to stop her. Lily rocked against him again in retaliation, and Din released her hands only to grab her by the hips to force her still. 

“Liliana, I swear…”He growled at her in what should have been a warning but sounded like a plea. A shiver rolled through her and she sat back on her heels, still over him. 

“I can’t look at you. I can’t touch you.” Lily scrubbed her hands up and down her face. She was frustrated and on edge. She looked miserable and desperate, but she held still and kept her hands to herself. He opened his mouth to refute that, but she bent and put their brows together again. “Please,” her voice was a needy sound by his ear. “You said you’d take care of me...” Her voice trailed off as she sucked in a deep breath of air that rushed out all at once. 

Against his better judgement and with a mind of its own, one of his hands pressed into her lower back and pulled her hips forward so he could nudge against her again. Din swallowed back the sound in his throat. His mouth was dry, and he bit into the side of his tongue to draw up enough spit to speak. If he didn’t have his helmet on, he could have wet his mouth with hers. He thought of what her tongue did against his thumb and imagined the vibrant sensation of how it would feel against his. The sensation exploded into his mind, wet and juicy like the fruit he’d sucked from her fingers. 

“Show me what you want from me.” His voice sounded thick and foreign, but she responded with gasping little affirmations. She stayed draped over him with her face against his helmet. Lily snaked a hand between their bodies and into her underwear, and the arm supporting her buckled at the sensation. Astride his lap, eyes pressed closed, she worked herself on her own hand. The sounds of wetness and her choppy breathing were almost drowned out by the sound his clothes made when they brushed against her thighs. Din rocked into her again and again with no purpose other than feeling good. 

Even through their layers, he could feel the heat of her against him and her hand kept bumping against his straining cock. Each time she did, she moaned, and Din hissed, but she still kept doing it over and over. Din held her hips as if he was diving into her; he’d never touched so much skin for so long.  _ There was so much touching. _ And now he knew the answer to how wide across her ribs and hips his hands would span. He knew the sound she made when she threw her head back and begged his name like a question. Din knew the rounded shape her mouth made when orgasm hit her and how her body crumpled as she came on her hand and sagged onto his lap. 

The knowledge of her hit him at once, and as she sat back against him, Din felt himself lose control. He saw nothing behind his eyelids as he pressed them closed, and he bit his mouth shut, trying to stave his own orgasm off. But Lily’s voice repeated his name over and over, urging him to cum for her, and she rocked against him so gently and so right that he had no choice but to give her what she asked of him. 

When his breathing slowed and he could bear to open his eyes again, Lily was still there, holding her hair out of her face and peppering soft kisses on to his helmet as if she were kissing the skin of his face. She waited until he let out a deep sigh of contentedness before rolling off of him and claiming her spot in the crook of his arm. Din continued to lie still, catching his breath, wrestling with the knowledge of what had just happened and the wet mess it had created. Lily let out a contented noise and burrowed her way closer into his arms, sweetly rubbing her hand across his chest. 

“Thank you,” she said quietly, her voice joining the sound of her hand running against the fabric of his shirt. Mando grunted at her and patted her shoulder absent-mindedly, not sure how to leave the situation gracefully with his pants full of cum. So instead of excusing himself gracefully, he simply panicked, as he was apt to do with Lily, and unwrapped himself from her, and flung his legs over the side of the bed. He kicked away what had been left on the floor and pulled the door closed behind him without looking back into the room. He walked as quickly as his mind would allow, on autopilot to get fresh clothes, then headed straight to the shower, where he dedicated as much time to cleaning up his first orgasm as he did to spilling the second one in her honor. Clean and dressed, he returned to his room to find his belongings neatly set out on the bed and boots beside the dorm; he smiled and checked down the hall. 

Her door was cracked open. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who got me throug these last couple weeks and talked me down with this chapter. Hopefully life starts getting easier and writing becomes a thing I have more time for. I super hope you enjoyed this little encounter and found it worth the wait! <3333


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mando learns about water desalination.

Last night was horrible. Terrible. Completely and totally awful, and Mando blamed Lily for it. By the time he had worked up the nerve to go back to her room, he had started overanalyzing what she meant when she returned his belongings. On one hand, she had laid them out nicely and respectfully and hadn’t dumped them on the bed like she was throwing them out; on the other hand, she could have just left them in her room for him to retrieve, and it would have given him a reason to go back. But by the time he had redressed and decided to sneak back and peek into her open door, she was already asleep. She was sprawled across the bed diagonally with the pillows trapped under her arms, leaving no room for him. Mando told himself that it was  _ fine _ ; she hadn’t invited him back, and he had his own bed. Not that he anticipated getting any sleep tonight. 

As planned, Mando had spent the night in the cockpit, taking his armour off one piece at a time and scrubbing it clean until not a single speck of dust, blood or guts was left on it. Just cleaning the lines of the Mudhorn emblem on his shoulder pauldron took an hour, but it was worth it. This was just the sort of distraction he needed from a distraction like Lily.

Mando scrubbed the armor with more care and determination than he had given anything lately. His armor had been the only thing that retained its permanence in his life. People will come and go; he learned that the day he became an orphan. He learned the lesson again and again as he watched people die or simply drift out of his life. The same lesson applied to objects, and the Razorcrest came to mind. Mando dug into a stubborn spot on the armor with the toothbrush he’d stolen out of the refresher and scrubbed until the memory faded and his hand ached from clutching the makeshift tool too tightly. He finished with the piece and shook his hands and stretched his fingers. 

All that was left was his helmet. He sighed. Always the helmet. It was strange having to account for another person being around when he took it off to give it a scrub. It was the middle of the night, and he knew Lily was sleeping, but just having another person  _ around _ when he took it off still felt strange. He chuckled to himself when Grogu’s curious little face came to mind, and he reflexively looked behind him as if the child would be sitting there, waiting to steal the ball off the end of the nav control. When he did and there was no happy coo to greet him, Mando sighed heavily and returned to his chore. 

There was too much in his head, and removing his helmet did nothing to alleviate the racing thoughts inside, so he set back to cleaning. Mando raked his fingers through his helmet hair and scratched at his scalp, ruffling the wavy brown tufts back into some semblance of humanity. Sometimes he wished he spent more time looking at him. The last time he had seen his own reflection, his short clipped beard had started growing in grey, and he wondered if the traitorous color had crept into his sideburns or snuck into the rest of his hair yet. Soon his hair would be as grey as his beskar. It was just a matter of time. 

He was getting older, as his body so often seemed to be reminding him these days. But until his body or his mind gave out, his armor would protect him, and that was why he was scrubbing it with a toothbrush in the middle of the night alone in the cockpit instead of fighting for a sliver of space in Lily’s bed. 

It didn’t matter how many times Bo Katan told him that he was following rules that didn’t exist or plead with him to realize that he was subjecting himself to made up rules of an overzealous cult, it was still The Way. He refused to believe that he had dedicated his life to a truth only to be told that it was a lie. He didn’t regret the times he had taken the helmet off for Grogu, but he had no plans to remove it again in front of another person. Mando tried to relax and quiet the doubting voice in his head as he sat in the pilot’s seat with his helmet in his lap and dirty toothbrush in his hand, scrubbing the thin lines etched in the beskar. 

Bo Katan had to be wrong. She just didn’t appreciate the importance of The Way. Mando knew his armor was glorious, and he understood what it symbolized and stood for. He was proud of and honored by it. The back and forth of the simple toothbrush in his hand was comforting; the more he scrubbed, the quieter his brain was. Mando took measured breaths, focusing on the motion and sound of the scrubbing and the artistry of the Armorer’s work. His helmet was his favorite part of the set, and undeniably the most precious thing he owned. The design was overall simple, but it was the details of it that separated it from the helms of other Mandalorians. It was his, and that alone made it better than the others. As Mando started cleaning and disinfecting the inside, he admitted to himself that the only difference between other helmets and his was his own attachment to it. He pushed Bo Katan’s criticism aside as he finished cleaning the helmet and placed it back over his head. He comforted himself by reminding himself that while Bo Katan didn’t understand, Boba Fett had instantly even though he didn’t share all of his beliefs. Boba understood the importance of his armor. Lily seemed to understand too, or at least she didn’t question it. 

Gathering up the cleaning supplies and straightening the cockpit, his thoughts were sidetracked as he remembered how Lily hadn’t tried to remove his helmet. She hadn’t even asked him to. In the darkness of her room, he’d been ready to, especially when she called him by his real name, but the moment was gone along with his willingness to be called by it. Now, he just felt awkward thinking about his readiness to abandon The Way, and found himself right back at where he had been hours before: overanalyzing  _ everything. _

As it were, he decided the best course of action was to simply ignore everything that had happened and act like nothing had happened at all. However, Mando’s brain chose the exact moment he arrived at this decision to replay the memory of Lily bringing herself to orgasm on his lap, hand buried in her underwear with her breasts in his face. Mando shook the image from his head only to run into the soft and warm and very real version of his memory. 

“Oh, kriff almighty, you are too damn shiny for morning.” Lily rubbed her eyes with loose fists and squeezed past him through the cockpit door. She settled into her seat like a cat getting ready to nap in the sun and called out a request for a cup of caf as he left. Mando obliged, dutifully brewing and delivering her daily cup of “wake up juice” and remaining silent as he had been warned to remain until she had finished the cup. 

“This tastes like shit. How do you mess up caf?” 

Mando ignored her attitude, and watched her face screw up as she tried another sip of the dark brew. 

“Yeah, this tastes awful. Try this,” Lily held the cup out to him, but he refused it. He never understood why people’s first reaction to tasting something terrible was to insist someone else taste it too. It made no sense, and he told her so. 

“No, no. Taste this. Does it taste like salt to you?” She took another sip, clicking her tongue against her teeth, deep in thought. “Taste it. Kind of gritty? This is salt. Shit!” She paused a second, taking another sip and swirling it around in her mouth. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” 

The string of  _ shits _ continued as she set the cup down, brown liquid spilling over the edge and onto the console. Lily nearly fell out of her seat, falling through the doorway and taking off in a speedy walk down the corridor until he could no longer see her. Mando sighed. Of course he had just put away the cleaning supplies. Body groaning and mind grumbling, he trekked back into the kitchen to retrieve what he had just put away, and found Lily standing in front of the sink. Her brow was furrowed, and her arms were across her chest. She was not happy. 

“The water is salty.” Mando nodded in acknowledgement, not agreement. He was not going to taste it if she said something was wrong with it. 

“Ok?” He wasn’t sure if he was expected to argue or not, but it seemed fruitless. 

She looked at him expectantly but he was just standing there, not helping to problem solve or fix the situation. She stared at him a little longer, but Mando had nothing to say because he was expecting her to say more. He could see her mind working and could practically hear the wheels spinning, but she said nothing, so he gave up and turned to leave. 

“Ok, fine. I’ll deal with it, but that means you have to go to the market. Here,” Lily went over to the FR-1G cooling unit and grabbed a sheet of paper off the front and stepped in front of him before he exited. She pushed the list into his chest. “You’re gonna have to go to the market.”

Mando stopped and looked down at her blankly. Somewhere along the way, her mind had skipped from point A to point Z, and he still needed to wipe up the caf spill. 

“Well, do  _ you _ know how to fix a water desalinator?” Her eyebrows were high and her voice was incredulous. Mando took the list and read it over. It was long and highly specific, but at least her penmanship was pretty and legible. He read it over, questioning a few items, and folded the list, storing it in a pocket on his ammo belt. Whatever this crisis was that she was freaking out about was too much for him to process, and her shrill orders had changed last night’s desire to be near her into an undeniable urge to flee and be anywhere she wasn’t. And since the market was where she  _ wasn’t _ , it sounded like the lesser of two evils. Still, Mando had a feeling he would hate this chore, and he was right. 

By the time he had returned to the ship with everything on the damn list, Mando was mentally exhausted and tired of people. He had chosen the wrong option and would have abandoned half of the list except he had wanted to make her happy. What was the point of bartering? Just name your damn price and be done with it! Mando shuddered to think of exactly how unhappy Lily would be if he missed something and she was forced to eat another MRE. He pushed the thought out of his head as he put the everything away so he could get back to her. 

When he peeked around upstairs, the only person he wanted to see was nowhere to be found. The ship was quiet, so he couldn’t find her by listening for her. Done with the day, he made a pit stop at the cockpit to scan for her heat signature instead of blindly wandering around the ship looking for her. Unsurprisingly, she was in a surprising place, and not one he would have searched.

She was _ in _ the floor. 

Because of course she was.

Mando took note of her location and headed down into the cargo area, skirting around the back of the stairs to the row of water tanks. At the end of the row, the subflooring access panels had been removed and set aside, and he could hear Lily below, talking to herself as she worked. 

Mando peered down into the hole and considered his options. The area was partially lit, probably by a portable light at the other end of one of the power cables that ran down into the hole. The space didn’t look invitingly large, but it looked about tall enough for him to be able to mostly stand in. Mando debated whether or not he wanted to put himself into the cramped space or if he wanted to stay topside, but Lily chose that moment to drop something. 

The loud, metallic clang was followed by a stream of vibrant, creative curses in a combination that was unique to expressing one’s frustration at how a repair was going. Mando had no idea up until that moment what the full, correct name for the water desalination unit was, but he knew he would never refer to it as such in polite company. Sighing and already regretting his decision, Mando called her name and sat on the edge of the opening and let his legs hang into the floor. 

The scowl on Lily’s dirt-streaked face was as sharp as the angry greeting she barked at him. She had popped up between his knees like a womp rat from its underground burrow, teeth bared and ready to strike out at him. He had no doubt that the tool in her hand would hurt just as bad as a rabid rodent bite if she sunk it into his thigh; she looked irritated enough to attack, so Mando tugged the instrument out of her fist and set it beside him on the grated floor. Lily let out a deep groan of frustration and held her hand out for help out of the hole. Mando hauled her out and handed her the drink he had bought for her. Lily let out a squeak of glee and gulped it down, gasping for breath after she had finished it. 

“Do you have any idea how much I wanted water? It’s all I can think about. I can’t have it so I want it.” She tossed her head back again, holding the empty bottle above her open mouth, waiting for the few remaining droplets to trickle in. She smacked the bottom for good measure, but that just made the precious drops splatter across her face instead of fall into her mouth. 

“So you didn’t fix it?” Mando thought it was a safe assumption to make, but he’d miscalculated. Lily’s face shot to his, eyes narrowed and mouth pursed. 

“If I had fixed it, I wouldn’t have needed this.” She held the bottle up and rattled it by his head. Mando rolled his eyes under his helmet, plucked that from her hands too and set it on the other side of him next to the tool. 

Lily groaned in frustration and scrubbed her face with her hands as she sprawled back on the grated floor. 

“This cannot be happening,” she whined. She stayed there, hands on her forehead, staring at the ceiling. She took a couple of deep breaths, pushing her exhale out through pursed lips. She sounded unsteady and on edge. She repeated the breathing exercise again, but it didn’t help. 

“We can get it fixed.” The answer was obvious to Mando, but it seemed to upset her more. 

“No, it’s not that easy. You can’t just  _ fix _ it!” Lily had stood up and was now pacing along the small section of floor between the hole and the row of water storage tanks. Her hand was back on her forehead; the other was on her hip as she walked back and forth in clipped strides. He watched her, looking for a clue as to what was making her so upset. Repairs were a necessary part of life on a ship; sometimes you could fix things yourself and sometimes you couldn’t. These sort of decisions were cut and dry and easy for him to make, but he knew Lily would only agree to letting someone else do the repairs as a last resort. This was  _ her  _ ship, and she was inclined to do things herself. Self reliance and pride in one’s ability to sustain themselves without the help of others was typical of nomadic traders like herself and her family.

_ “Fuck.” _ She had stopped pacing and was standing in front of him looking completely terrified. Mando looked behind him to make sure that they were still alone; he knew he had secured the ship. But no one was behind him and that meant that the fear in her eyes was meant for him. 

Mando started to get up off the floor as she started talking a million parsecs a minute in one long sentence. Mando caught bits and pieces as she started pacing again. “You’re going to be so fucking mad. Kriff, I’m fucked. I’m so fucking fucked. I’m so fucking fuck fucked.”

“Lily,” he said her name as an order. She paused mid-stride but only to chew on her bottom lip and start again. He tried again, but she refused to give him any attention. The third time he said her name, he used the full version. She stopped immediately, eyes wide and mouth shut. “Come here.” 

Lily swallowed thickly and sulked her way over to stand front of him. She refused to meet his eyes, staring instead at her feet as she balanced on the outside edge of her boots. Mando held her wrists in his hands, not so much as to give her comfort, but as a precaution in case she did decide to scoop up the screwdriver off the ground and bury it in his thigh. 

“Sweetheart,” he dropped his voice, and Lily leaned forward against him, dropping her head against his chest plate. He still held her hands, fully aware that she could grab any of the weapons attached to his body and strike him if she wanted to. “Calm down, and let’s fix it.”

“Don’t call me that -” she shot back, pushing off his freshly-polished armor and glaring at him.

“Fine, Lily. Just tell me what’s wrong, and we can fix it. We need to get moving; I have three other bounties to claim, and we have spent too much time here as it is.” He squeezed her wrists to prove her point, and she tried to pull them out of his grasp. 

“I don’t like how you’re holding me.” She eyed his hands on hers warily, taunting him with her eyes. There was an edge of apprehension in there, but the panic seemed to have been replaced by the frustrated wariness that he was used to in her. Sighing, he dropped her wrists dramatically, and she put on just as much of a show as she rubbed them. She began talking as she stepped away and dropped back into the hole, raising her voice as she did. 

“It’s solar-powered desalination,” she called up from below the floor as if those words meant anything to him. Mando folded his arms across his chest and settled in for what felt like what would be a very long winded and winding explanation. 

“There’s panels on the hull. Heat turns to energy turns to heat and boils the bad shit out of the water, right?” Lily’s head popped out from the hole, and she grunted as she hefted an old, beat-up, red toolbox up out of the hole. She had it up before Mando could offer a hand and replaced the missing floor tile. “Normally, you’d just run the unit off the main engine but by running it separately, we were able to decrease the wind-up for hyperdrive by fifteen percent.”

Mando shifted on his feet, waiting for her to get to the point. She took a second to take her hair down then pull it back up into the same bun, sweeping all of the loose hair that had escaped the first one. 

“Why would you need to increase your hyperdrive?” Mando asked. Lily shifted nervously and went to the water cistern farthest from them and motioned for him to follow. 

“It’s complicated.” She brushed off the question, but her answer was all of the confirmation he needed. Mando could see where this was going. “Come sit down? Right here?” She pointed to a spot on the floor, and he followed her directions. She kept talking as he laid down on the ground behind the water containment unit and scooted backwards under it as she instructed. 

“I checked the panels. I checked the pipes. I checked the actual unit. It’s working just fine, but none of the processed water is getting into the tanks. This means the pump is bad.”

“Why the hell am I under here, Lily?” Mando’s patience was running out, and he wasn’t sure why he had listened to her in the first place. First, she had him grocery shopping for her and now he was underneath a water unit fixing plumbing issues? 

“The problem with the pumps is that they’re only connected to two of the three cisterns. There’s a separate pump for overflow into this one. It isn’t connected to the main unit.” Now she had his attention. She took a deep breath before she continued. From where he was, he could see her feet next to his. She sunk down onto the ground, leaning against the unit. With a shaky voice, she had him turn his torch on and directed him to a spot about a meter to his right. 

“You see three drilled holes in a triangle shape? Looks like a drain plate only there’s no drain?” she asked, clearing her throat to get rid of the shakiness. “Use your two fingers and thumb to slip in there and turn it counter clockwise. Should pop off.” 

And it did, just as she said it would. The circular plate came down in his hands; it was about 10 centimeters wide with false screws soldered into it. He put it to the side, and twisted the hidden wheel in the compartment until it wouldn’t turn anymore. Lily tapped the side of his boot to signal he was done under there, and he wiggled his way out from under the tank. When he crawled out, she had her hands up in front of her. 

“Ok, don’t say anything. Just let me finish. I’ve...just let me finish.” She let out another pursed breath, hand on her forehead before she motioned for him to follow her. Lily went around the side of the unit and started up the small metal ladder attached to it, waiting for Mando to grab the freestanding ladder kept against the wall and meet her at the top. 

“My patience is wearing thin,” was all he said, but his tone had the intended impact, and she apologized and opened the top of the unit. Inside was water. “Well, this was fun.” Sarcasm dripped from his modulator, but Lily’s hand on his arm stopped him from going down back down the ladder. He had a feeling he knew exactly what she was going to tell him, and just wished that she would get on with it. Show and tell was not how he wanted to spend the rest of his day. 

“Just shut up and hit those two buttons by your hand,” she bit back at him, doing the same on her side of the unit. He looked down. The wall of the unit was about as wide as his hand and sunken into it were four buttons: two on his side - two on hers - but easily reachable by her without his help. Sighing, he did as he was told and followed Lily as she shut the lid and climbed down. 

“Only works if the top is closed all the way.” Again, she spoke as if it made sense to him. Taking his hand, she dragged him a few meters into the cargo area. He could clearly see all three units. They looked completely normal. He might even say they looked completely unremarkable and boring. The latter wouldn’t be far off. He was bored. He was tired, and he had spent far too much time and energy last night  _ not sleeping _ , and he was ready to remedy that. “Thank you. Stay here. Theatrics.” She smiled tightly at him and waved her hands dramatically as if she was performing a magic trick. 

And then she went over and started pushing on the wall of the unit. Whatever Mando had expected to happen, the outer wall starting to spin was not it. Mando watched as Lily untwisted - for the lack of a better word - the wall of the water containment unit. Hydraulic pistons hissed as it lifted away, twisting up towards the walkway above where the stairs met the second floor landing. It stopped just before it pushed against the floor above it, and Mando found himself struck by the genius of the machinery. 

“And then this part spins, too.” Lily smiled sheepishly, and pushed the inner wall of the unit. It spun around, showing off different compartments, clicking on its bearings as it rotated. Mando wasn’t sure his eyes could get any wider as he walked over and inspected it. The design was incredible, but so was what was hidden inside of it. 

“Surprise?” Lily held her hands out to her sides and wiggled her fingers as if she was dancing. She smiled nervously, immediately tucking her lips back into her mouth as he turned to look at her. When he turned back to continue his silent inspection, he grew nervous again. “Can you say something?” She paused to allow him to speak, adding a “please” when he stayed silent. 

The inner walls housed a strange carousel of weapons, bolts of mynoc silk, New Republic and Imperial credits, and a mixture of other fascinating things that both impressed and concerned Mando. He rotated the apparatus slowly, frankly overwhelmed by the menagerie of prohibited items it held. 

This time it was his turn to clear his throat in an effort to find his voice. When he still didn’t say anything, and the silence stretched uncomfortably between them, Lily started working around him to close it back up. Mando stepped back, watching her orchestrated movements as if she were dancing a graceful ballet. It took her almost no time to twist the unit closed, and he watched captivated as she scaled the ladder to open the lid back up and reset the buttons. She jogged over to him, taking the cover plate back from him and slid under the water unit to replace it with the speed and grace that only youth could possess. 

“That’s why the water meter is always wrong, by the way. It’s about 300 liters off. Just an FYI.” Lily had turned her tone casual in the hopes it would save her from whatever reaction that Mando would decide on. As of the moment, his mind still seemed stuck spinning in a circle like the inside of the water unit. Tentatively, Lily reached out and touched his bicep; he tensed under her but didn’t move away. 

“There’s more than enough in there to go buy a new pump.” 

Lily looked at him surprised, expecting a different answer. Mando turned and headed upstairs, dismissing her, her concerns, and her reaction. He was going to bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! We made it through another week! Thanks for spending some of your time with me. Ya'll rock. 
> 
> I spent way too much time going through different ways that you can purify water on a vessel. Science is cool.


End file.
